.
As I carefully asked her that way, Yeo Ryung began to explain enthusiastically how she solved the question while drawing lines with her fingertips, instead of using a pencil, but I couldn’t pay attention to most of them.
However, I was able to realize something–at least, she didn’t lose her knowledge. Plus, there was a reason why I didn’t ask Ban Yeo Ryung how she came up with an answer to a difficult math question. No matter how hard I tried to listen to her explanation, my brain wasn’t as good as hers to understand her problem-solving skills.
After I finished verifying that she didn’t lose her prodigious knowledge, I spent a time of shock, lying my head on the table.
“Ah, what should I do? What can I do to get her memories back?”
Although I found out the type of memory loss she was going through right now, I couldn’t do something specifically for her. All of a sudden, I took out my phone and retraced the memories I had earlier one after another.
Using a little common sense, the first thing I should do was to let Yeo Ryung’s parents and Yeo Dan oppa know about her condition. But, thinking about their reactions afterward, I was too afraid to do that…
Disheveling my hair, I shook my head from side to side. Even I, sitting right beside her, couldn’t get over this shocking reality, so how would her family members react to this unbelievable situation? A chill ran down my spine.
Next, I took out the crumpled paper in my hand. It was the truck driver’s name card that I received earlier this morning. Looking at his phone number engraved on the small thick paper, I knitted my forehead again.
There could be a connection between the car accident and her memory loss that occurred a few hours later, so I should reach out to this guy as well. Imagining the conversation that we would have on the phone, I, again, shook my head.
“No, I can’t…”
He looked very surprised during the accident, so if I call him right now, he would definitely be like, ‘I knew she would experience side effects after the accident! What is it that she’s going through?’ But I wasn’t brave enough to tell him that she lost her memory.
No, as of now, I just wanted to deny this overall situation! Why was it supposed to be only me who’s staying beside Yeo Ryung when she’s suffering amnesia right now? As long as someone was next to us, I could have discussed a better solution.
My chest felt stuffy and uncomfortable under pressure. Shoving my head on the table, moaning in confusion, I soon lifted my head. Something flashed through my mind.
Although I felt so pressured to solve this situation alone, it was Yeo Ryung who would have become the most chaotic. Back then, when we were kidnapped, Yeo Ryung shouted confidently that everyone’s dead meat, but she was trembling her hands behind her back. Thus, she would actually feel very nervous right now even though she looked quiet and calm.
She didn’t know who she was and who I was to stay beside her, so this situation would very much bewilder and confuse her. Having that thought in mind, I could finally prioritize things to do right now.
First of all, I should explain Yeo Ryung about this incident. Earlier, I thought that she lost both her memories and learning abilities, so I misunderstood that I should discuss her situation with other people, not directly with her.
However, Yeo Ryung was doing fine–still brilliant and smart as she used to be. That being said, wouldn’t she be able to, instead, prioritize things on behalf of me right now?
Staring at her for a second, I was shortly lost in confusion. Despite my thoughts about her feeling anxious and out of control, Yeo Ryung was looking just so composed.
She seemed like a sleepy cat lying under the afternoon sunlight. At some point, her face was tinged with a sign of satisfaction, which looked quite mysterious, so I gazed at her for quite a while. Then I carefully tossed a question.
“Did you remember who I am?”
Or else she couldn’t look that much comfortable while forgetting who she was and staying with a stranger in an unknown place.
While I thought that way, Yeo Ryung shook her head.
“No,” she replied.
I asked, “But why do you look so calm?”
Then she slightly tilted her head and continued speaking.
“Just…”
“Just?”
“… Just… I like you.”
“…”
Leaving me aside, who was at a loss for words, Yeo Ryung tilted her head in wonder for quite a while and added, ‘Is that wrong?’
I stared at her with some indescribable feelings on my face then quickly got up from the seat.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, following me in bewilderment.
Trying hard to ignore her gaze and her short and quick footsteps following me, I took out my phone and pressed a number as calmly as possible.
As long as I know, there was only one way to get medical support without letting Yeo Ryung’s family know and reaching out to the truck driver.
“Hello, Eun Jiho?” I said in a stiff voice. “Can you book an appointment at the medical center right now? You know the place where Ban Yeo Ryung and I got a checkup at the doctor after we got kidnapped…?”
“Dude, what’s going on? Did you have some bad dreams or what?” asked Eun Jiho in perplexity. But shortly after, his voice suddenly turned serious with full of concerns, and he began to interrogate me.
Shoot, I forgot that he felt heavily responsible for the kidnapping incident. Geez, I wasn’t thinking it straight. Furrowing my brows for a second, I found that Yeo Ryung came close to me before I even knew it.
Throwing a glance at her, I soon replied meekly, “Ah, no, it’s not… it’s just… Yeo Ryung…”
“Ban Yeo Ryung? What’s about her?” asked Eun Jiho.
“She lost… her memories…”
After blurting out that way, I slowly heaved a sigh. Even though I told him the truth, it sounded like a bad joke.
That was why I didn’t want to call Yeo Ryung’s family or other people. This kind of thing should be spoken, at least, in person, not through the phone.
Even the invincible Eun Jiho sounded disconcerted at my remark.
“What?” he replied. However, he seemed to have quickly grasped that I wasn’t joking at all. Well, no one would call someone out of the blue to throw a stupid joke like that.
But as if he wanted to get one thing straight, Eun Jiho carefully asked a question.
“How… did it happen…?”
“She got hit by a truck on our way to the groceries…” I replied.
“What?” Eun Jiho’s voice became urgent. “Then she had a car accident! She shouldn’t go see the psychiatrist first but have some surgical treatment. Where are you guys right now?”
Cutting him off, I uttered, “… She was fine actually, and we both returned home, but after she was in the kitchen to cook, the frying pan she was taking out from the cupboard struck her head. She fainted afterward.”
“You’re kidding me, huh?” Eun Jiho asked me immediately in distrust.
I replied with a sign, “I wish I were joking…”
“… Should I send the car to your apartment?”
Eun Jiho responded, giving a sigh of resignation, in which I realized that I succeeded in persuading him to accept the truth, at last.
To be honest, I would have just hung up the phone, telling him to stop fooling me around, but Eun Jiho… you were trusting me so much than I had expected.
Finding enlightenment out of the blue, I urged him, “Please be here as soon as possible.”
“This is a serious situation, dude. I will, of course, but… why? Is she suffering too severely?”
“No, not that much, but…” I added heavily, “The Casanova inside her seemed to have opened. She gives me butterflies.”
“…”
“Please help me to avoid this situation. I don’t want to have a crush on my boyfriend’s sister. This ain’t a soap opera you know.”
Eun Jiho kept his mouth shut to my remark, then he said okay and hung up the phone.
Though I wasn’t sure if he was really taking my words seriously, the car he sent us arrived exactly three minutes later.
