.
Of course, it wasn’t only the truck driver who was concerned about her health condition. Walking around the huge grocery store, I asked her several times while putting things in the cart.
“Are you really okay? Are you sure?”
Yeo Ryung replied cheerfully, “Yeah, I am sincerely fine. Come on, you always tell me I’m overprotective if I worry about you.”
“Hey, this is a different situation,” I uttered. “You are hit by a truck…”
Before I finished the sentence, Yeo Ryung was running excitedly to the corner that was holding an event. Quickly following her, I touched my forehead.
‘She seems really fine running like a feather that way. They say most of the female main characters in web novels are usually healthy, but she seems more than that. This isn’t a sci-fi genre, is it?’
Still, I was afraid if Yeo Ryung would bump into someone and stumble down while she’s out of my sight. Thus, I was staying on my toes till the end. During the short period of time shopping in the mart, I quickly felt fatigued.
However, Yeo Ryung was doing very well even until she took out all the things in the cart onto the checkout counter. I split the things we both and put them into two different bags, but Yeo Ryung left the spot, holding the two big plastic bags in her arms. Watching that sight, I just tilted my head in wonder.
There were a couple of hospitals on our way back home. Whenever I saw them, I thought, ‘Should I just drag her into that place?’ but Yeo Ryung was walking ahead of me at a distance, so I couldn’t force her to go see the doctor.
In the end, we just returned home with my words of suggestion to see the doctor left unspoken. Placing the bags on the table, Yeo Ryung first checked the time.
“It’s already noon,” she said. “Let’s eat lunch and watch a movie, then they’ll be here after that.”
Yeo Ryung rolled up her sleeves immediately and headed to the kitchen sink. Sticking out my chin in that direction, I asked, “Anything I can do? Let me help you.”
“Just find a movie to watch together,” she replied.
Well, all I could do with my cooking skills were just peeling off onions. Nodding, I went straight to my room.
While I browsed my computer files for an enjoyable movie, there was a loud thud in the kitchen. First, it sounded like a huge vibration then some heavy, metal-like noise came after as if something was rolling on the floor.
Flinching my shoulders, I soon pushed the chair back and got up.
“Yeo Ryung?”
As soon as I turned around the corner of the kitchen, shouting urgently that way, I saw Ban Yeo Ryung lying on the floor as she did on the crosswalk earlier. Feeling terrified, I quickly went close to her and kneeled down.
The cupboard above her head was wide open, and beside her, the dining chair and frying pan were fallen over the floor. Perhaps, she tried to take something from the cupboard, but it slipped out of her hand and hit her head, which made her collapse to the floor.
Thankfully, the frying pan didn’t look that big. Phew, heaving a sigh of relief, I quickly shook her shoulders.
“Yeo Ryung, are you okay?”
Until that moment, I wasn’t seriously concerned about her. Since Yeo Ryung was doing perfectly well even when she got hit by a truck, a frying pan couldn’t harm her, commonsensically.
Based on the car accident that she was involved in, I decided to have an endless trust toward how strong and durable a female main character in a web novel was. Not only did they have strong mindsets but female MCs in web novels were physically so strong too. Oh, lord!
While I rambled those thoughts in my head, Ban Yeo Ryung, in my arms, finally opened her eyes.
Looking at her thick and full eyelashes fluttering like a butterfly, I showed a faint smile. Indeed, I knew she would be fine. That was when I tried to help her get up.
Holding my arm, Yeo Ryung spoke in a weak and feeble tone.
“Who…”
“What?”
“Who… are… you…?”
“…”
After a moment of a long silence, I asked myself, ‘Did I hear it wrong?’ Or maybe she was joking at bad timing.
Holding my breath, I looked down at Yeo Ryung. Her eyes were still shining as if she was looking for a response. Then I wasn’t hearing it wrong. She might be throwing a joke then, right?
That was when I smiled awkwardly and tried to say to her stop fooling me around.
“Where… is this… place…?”
Ah, no… no way…!!! I covered my face with my palms.
I wished I could just faint.
<hr />
Law of a Web Novel, Article 42. In Every Web Novel, Female MC is Always Exposed to Memory Loss, Incurable Illness, or Threat of Abduction
With that being said, kids playing nearby the water would be rather safer than the female MCs. At least, kids wouldn’t suddenly disappear as long as the adults keep their eyes out for them.
Among the three big dangers that female MCs would confront, Yeo Ryung survived the threat of abduction very well. Since I wasn’t a doctor, I couldn’t deal with incurable illnesses, so I tried not to even think about that part. In the case of memory loss, it’s been a very old-fashioned plot to even use in recent TV dramas, so I wasn’t able to take that into consideration at all.
Thinking to that extent, I touched my forehead and murmured to myself.
“But, it isn’t my fault to miss that she will suffer memory loss from getting hit by a frying pan in her own kitchen…”
If this was about to happen, I should have told her that I would cook for her, instead. However, it was already too late to regret.
Pressing my aching head, I stared at Ban Yeo Ryung in front of me. She was sitting coyly on the dining chair as I advised and gazing at me. Her pose–sitting quietly with her hands gathered in front of her knees–reminded me of a doll in the music box on the display case or a well-behaving kid.
I couldn’t stop thinking that way since her pitch-black eyes looking up at me had no signs of suspicion against me. She didn’t seem to doubt that I was a weirdo or a liar.
Sitting across the table, I put the bag blocking our sight down on the floor then tossed a question.
“Do you remember your name? Or how old you are?”
She just shook her head.
“Do you know which year it is right now?”
Slightly furrowing her brows, she shook her head again. Jesus Christ! I touched my forehead and was lost in thought.
Okay, so according to what I learned, there were two types of memory loss–losing common knowledge and losing personal memories. We could forget both or either one of them.
As of now, she clearly didn’t remember who she was.
I asked, “What’s two plus two?”
“Four.”
She replied immediately with no hesitation. Looking at her apathetic expression on her face, I regretted for a second. ‘Hmm, was it too easy?’ But all I could ask her right now was just some simple math questions, which wasn’t enough to mark the difference between her symptoms.
Thinking for a moment, I gestured her to stay still then walked into her room to bring her workbook… but, I just stopped.
All that was on her shelf and desk were just textbooks, a few novels, and science magazines. I sighed, ‘Right, she doesn’t have any workbooks.’
If Yeo Ryung got introduced on the TV as the student with the highest nationwide mock exam score, I was assured that all the after-school cram academies in Korea would immediately face sales plummet.
In the end, I told Yeo Ryung to stay still dozens of times then went to my house to bring my workbook. When I finally took mine in front of her, Yeo Ryung was sitting right there waiting for me as I advised.
Why on earth was she trusting me so blindly when she didn’t remember who I was? Feeling curious, I flipped over the page on the book and pointed at a question.
“What’s the answer for this one?”
“Number two.”
The geometry question looked quite tricky at first glance, but she answered immediately just as she did when I asked her what was two plus two. Gently flipping the answer book, I moaned, ‘Yeah, that’s correct.’
But things could happen by chance, so I had to be stricter to distinguish her level of memory loss.
“Can you explain how you got that answer?”
