Jin-eun cautiously entered the house, noticing how unusually deserted it was. Usually, the employees were running around, cleaning and tidying up the place before the sun came up. She hadn't even noticed how desolate the mansion was before she went out for a run.
Crash! A noise broke the silence.
Jin-eun followed the sound that led her to the living room where her mother usually spent her free time. The place was filled with plants, reflecting her passion for herbology. She used to imagine her mother sitting peacefully, surrounded by the flowers she tended as if they were her children, while drinking her morning tea. But today was different. Her mother seemed upset as she talked on the phone, spilled tea and her white cup shattered at her feet.
"In the end you haven't done anything useful, you just caused me trouble! You should have done everything quietly, without drawing attention to yourself. But no, you had to cause a huge fuss by letting her escape, and because of that, my daughter had an accident. And in the end what do we have? You couldn't even find that brat. You better fix it quickly; I need you to get rid of her before my husband finds her," she suggested irritably. "If you don't do as I say, I'll have you thrown back in prison," she threatened the person on the other end of the phone. "You know that none of this will work if we don't get rid of her. We need the will to change before we can carry out our plan."
Jin-eun held her breath as she realized what the woman was saying. Or rather, what she was looking for. She only needed to remember the arguments her fake parents had on a daily basis.
"What are they saying, Hyun-woo?" Jin-eun whispered as they both eavesdropped behind the door.
"What were you doing in Argentina? I told you not to take her with you, that it was a dangerous place. I knew this would happen," her mother scolded, raising her voice and pushing her husband away. "You should never have left her alone; you had to take better care of her."
"Do you think I planned all this? Don't do this to me; I'm suffering too."
"This is your fault, it's your fault. My daughter became an idiot because of you!"
"Please! Stop screaming," her father implored. "She's only lost her memory, and thank God she's alive. That's what's important."
"She can barely speak, she doesn't even know how to write her own name. If she's not retarded, then what is she?" she questioned. "Tell me," she ordered.
"She just needs to go back to school. It's not like her brain has stopped being sharp. Her abilities, her intelligence, everything is still there. She just needs to relearn, and she will do it because she is her. She is capable of doing it."
The woman burst into tears, desperate and overwhelmed by the situation. "What will we do if she never regains her memory? If she stays like this for life?"
"You shouldn't think that way. Just give her time. With our support, she will shine again like before."
"Tell me the truth, you went to look for your daughter. All this happened because you still haven't forgotten her. You don't even know if she is alive or dead, you are just looking for a ghost."
"I can't believe you are asking me for this. You said it, she is my daughter, she is my blood. I need to find her, whether she is alive or dead. It is my responsibility."
"Jin-eun means nothing to you just because she doesn't have your blood."
"Don't talk nonsense. I love her like she's my own daughter. You're my family, but I don't feel complete without her."
"If you really loved Jin-eun, you wouldn't have left her alone."
"What are you saying?" Jin-eun asked, a little impatiently.
"Well, your mother thinks you're retarded," Hyun-woo explained with a small smile.
"Are you serious?"
"Well, you have to admit that anyone would think that if you suddenly woke up and couldn't speak or write. Then again, the strange thing is that you woke up speaking Spanish and the only thing you don't remember is your family, friends, etc. Besides your own language, but everything else: math, history, geology, politics, you have it intact. It's really amazing."
"And what else?"
"Remember the sounds of this conversation and when you learn Korean you'll be able to understand everything."
"You're telling someone with a failing memory to remember something? Well, at least they'll make it easy. They're always fighting and repeating the same word, 'daughter,'" he pronounced the word perfectly in Korean.
"Wow, you learned a new word. That means daughter, and I'll tell you so you can understand why they fight all the time. Your father is looking for his missing daughter, and it just so happens that while he was doing that, you followed him to Argentina and had the accident there. So, your mother is angry about it. She blames him for his missing daughter being more important than you."
She began to back away slowly, trying not to make a single sound as she walked. Her heart was beating a thousand miles an hour, that strange feeling was invading her again, like the first time she met that woman: the chill running through her body, her body tense and her pulse racing, that sixth sense screaming at her to escape.
"I knew she was dangerous, that fake smile with which she looks at her husband, the possessive way she takes care of me, while urging me to follow the path she wants for me, or rather, for her daughter. Always reminding me that I must study more, telling me that I must be the best to be able to handle my father's company, that one day the time will come when I can control everything. She wants to get rid of both the father and the daughter."