I held my breath. The people around us looked equally startled.
“You don’t…… remember?”
Wait, is this that thing? The thing I’d seen countless times in dramas and comics. But it was strange. Choi Seol clearly remembered my name. And his own name too.
“How far back does the memory……. No, wait, I mean…….”
With a faint hope that it wasn’t what I thought, I asked Choi Seol.
“How old are you right now?”
I had no idea myself why I’d asked that. It just felt like that question would give me the answer. Choi Seol didn’t reply right away. Whether still confused or simply uncomfortable with the question, he furrowed his brow before finally, hesitantly, opening his mouth.
“Seventeen.”
Oh my God!
“It seems the shock from the accident has caused some temporary disruption to his memory.”
The doctor, reading off the test results in a thoroughly unconvinced tone, glanced at Choi Seol’s reaction. There was none. Instead of answering, the look he gave the doctor seemed to say, so what am I supposed to do about it, and it was fairly insolent. It was the exact same expression he used to give people he didn’t like back in school. Looking at just that, he really did seem like a genuine seventeen-year-old.
“So you’re saying the brain itself is fine?”
Unable to stand the tense atmosphere any longer, I butted in instead.
“For now, that does seem to be the case, yes.”
“Then there’s a good chance his memory will come back once he calms down a bit?”
“……Well, that’s hard to say for certain at this point. Cases like this aren’t common……. For now, the CT and MRI results show nothing wrong physically, but just to be safe, it would be best to get a more thorough examination at your regular hospital once you’re home.”
It seemed this was the reason behind Choi Seol’s insolent look. The doctor evidently didn’t believe his amnesia was genuine. Then again, it wasn’t a matter of days or months—it was a full ten years’ worth. That was probably exactly why he called it an uncommon case.
On top of that, his attitude was part of the problem too. For someone who’d just lost a third of his life, aside from that initial moment, he showed no sign of confusion whatsoever. If anything, he looked composed to the point of looking bored. Sensing he looked ready to bolt out of there any second, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
This guy really hasn’t changed one bit.
It was right around then, amid old memories surfacing again and again, that I felt a strange sensation.
“By the way, you’re the patient’s friend, is that right?”
“Huh? Ah……. Yes.”
I let the words slip out awkwardly, glancing sideways at Choi Seol. His expression showed no change whatsoever, as if he didn’t mind in the least that I’d taken the role of his friend. Feeling foolish for being the only one stung by guilt, I felt a flush of embarrassment. Unaware of any of this backstory, the doctor continued speaking casually.
“I heard from Nurse Jeong. You were apparently present as a witness at the scene of the patient’s accident. What an extraordinary coincidence, really. Especially considering the age he remembers is from right when the two of you attended the same school together.”
Something about that feels pointed.
It seemed the doctor had us paired together as suspects. Quite unfair, but even I had to admit there were more than a few suspiciously convenient coincidences in all this. So all I could do was laugh it off.
“Ha ha ha, right. It really is something.”
“Still, it’s truly fortunate. Having a friend nearby to lean on in a situation like this must ease the patient’s anxiety considerably. I heard earlier that he tried to bolt out of the ER, and you were the one who held him back.”
“Ah, that. He must’ve just been a bit startled. But he’s calmed down now, so…….”
“Normally, since the patient is an adult, he wouldn’t strictly need a guardian, but as you know, these days even the smallest issue can blow up into something loud on social media and elsewhere. But given that it’s specifically amnesia, and the memory happens to stop right at his minor years…… On top of that, the patient seems to be showing some signs of psychological distress, so as a medical professional, it was difficult to simply send him off without a guardian present.”
Wait, huh? This is going in a strange direction. Sensing something off, I hurriedly shook my head.
“Oh, come on, lean on me? That’s a bit much. We only just ran into each other after a long time, so…….”
“Not that long ago, I keep telling you.”
Could you please just stay quiet for a second.
I whipped my head around to glare at Choi Seol, then turned back to flash a bright smile at the doctor.
“The officer in charge said she’d try contacting his family. So the guardian situation should be resolved soon.”
“I don’t have a family.”
That mouth of his clearly wasn’t the type that found talking troublesome—it just had some built-in function that only opened when he himself felt like spilling something. My head whipped back toward Choi Seol again. Gritting my teeth, I tried my best to sound as gentle as possible.
“Seol. Even if you’ve lost your memory, is it really okay to say something so harsh, no—something that would make your parents sad, right in front of me?”
The Choi Seol I remembered, the seventeen-year-old one, had definitely had parents. I’d once been personally asked a favor by a man who’d said he was sent by Choi Seol’s father. I’d also once run into Choi Seol carrying flowers home, saying they were for his mother’s birthday. Neither memory was a particularly good one for me, so I’d rather not think too deeply on them.
Wait, come to think of it, hadn’t he also said he lived with his grandmother? The memory of Choi Seol smiling comfortably while saying my granny surfaced vividly, and my heart gave an unexpected little flutter.
In any case, he could fool everyone else here, but that particular lie wasn’t going to work on me.
Choi Seol, perhaps embarrassed at being caught, changed the way he was looking at me. His eyes had widened slightly—it could’ve been surprise, or maybe more like he’d seen something strange……
Hm? Something strange?
“I really don’t have one. My mom died early, and the grandmother who raised me passed away not long ago.”
“…….”
“No, wait. If I’m twenty-seven now, that’d already be ten years ago, huh?”
His voice, denying it again, was flat and matter-of-fact. The faint, scoffing laugh that followed, as if finding the whole situation absurd, looked bitter. It was only then that I realized Choi Seol was telling the truth.
“Oh dear, it seems your friend didn’t know.”
Whatever confusion had shown plainly on my face, the doctor now looked back and forth between the two of us. It seemed to strike him as even more curious that, as his friend, I hadn’t known about his circumstances than the fact that Choi Seol had no family at all.
“I’ll……. just go to the restroom for a moment.”
I needed a little time to compose my expression. Just as I made an excuse and stood to leave, my wrist was caught. At the surprisingly strong grip, I frowned and looked at Choi Seol. Perhaps because I’d already stated my destination, his mouth opened as if to ask where I was going, then closed again without a word. Still, his gaze toward me remained persistent. There was something uneasy in his eyes. Maybe that was why.
“I’ll be right back.”
The words slipped out of me unintentionally, and the grip on my arm loosened. Was that the right answer? Inwardly bewildered, I prioritized getting outside first. Even as I stepped into the hallway and the door swung shut behind me, I felt as if that gaze were still stubbornly trailing after me.
What was that just now?
Standing blankly in the hallway, replaying Choi Seol’s behavior in my head, my wrist throbbed faintly where he’d held it. As I absentmindedly went to rub it, someone suddenly shoved their face right in front of mine.
“Done with the exam?”
“Aaah!”
I let out a shrill yelp and stumbled backward. My back hit the door with a loud thud. There wasn’t even time to feel the pain. I’d only just stepped into the hallway—I still hadn’t actually left the area in front of the exam room where Choi Seol was.
“What, geez, you scared me. Were you that startled seeing my gorgeous face?”
“You just suddenly got in my face like that. Anyway, let’s go, quickly.”
“Go where. I’ve got business with the flower boy.”
“He’ll be out soon, so let’s hurry.”
I pushed at the noona’s back, putting as much distance from the door as I could manage. Still, going too far felt wrong given the look in Choi Seol’s eyes just now, so I settled at a spot close enough to be visible the moment the door opened.
“What’s with you? Is there something you need to be careful about saying? Don’t tell me…… there’s something seriously wrong with his brain?”
That seemed to be how the noona interpreted my fidgety behavior. Watching her expression turn grave, I asked something else instead of answering.
“Did you manage to contact Choi Seol’s family?”
“Huh? Um, that’s…….”
Given that I’d just ignored her question, she’d have every right to push back, but instead the noona trailed off, looking troubled. Seeing that reaction, it seemed Choi Seol’s words had been true.
“Is it true his parents passed away early?”
“How’d you know that? Oh right, you said you’re his friend.”
“……I just found out myself, actually.”
At my slightly delayed answer, the noona’s expression turned curious. Thankfully, she didn’t dig any further.
“Well, I guess it’s possible not to know. Not everyone tells their friends everything, after all. His mother did pass away when he was young, that part’s confirmed. As for his father, there’s no information on him at all, which probably means there’s some kind of story there. Frankly, in situations like this, it’s usually pretty obvious what that story is. Ugh, I’m about to start cursing out some guy I’ve never even met, so let’s just drop it.”
The noona let out a sigh, as if holding back her anger, and continued.
“Anyway, given the circumstances, it looks like after the grandmother who raised him passed away, there wasn’t really anyone else to claim him as family. Makes me think about how hard it must’ve been, becoming all alone at such a young age.”
Choi Seol had been quite the well-known figure at school. Part of it was his handsome looks, but he’d also been excellent at everything—sports, academics, and on top of all that, his personality had been flawless too, so naturally, rumors about him were inevitable. And yet, amid all that, his family background had remained thoroughly shrouded in mystery.
Strange stories had circulated—someone claimed they’d snuck a look at his student record and even there, no address was listed; someone else said they’d followed him after school only to see him vanish into an expensive-looking black car partway there—and with rumors like that floating around, the students’ imaginations had run wild without limit. Among them, the most outrageous theory had been about some secret birth.
Turned out he was the son of a gang boss, some said. Others claimed he was the illegitimate child of a chaebol family. Back then, I’d shaken my head at how ridiculous it all sounded, but now, I almost wished any one of those rumors had turned out to be true. To have absolutely no family to claim him at all.
Then who on earth was that person who’d come looking for me back then, claiming to be from his father’s side?
Memories from ten years ago really weren’t to be trusted after all.
“Do you happen to know when Choi Seol’s grandmother passed away?”
Choi Seol had clearly said it was not long ago. Since he believed himself to be seventeen, that meant she must have died sometime during the period when I knew him, back when we saw each other every day in the same class.
It was clear, at least, that it hadn’t been summer when she passed. So when exactly had it been? I’d never heard so much as a word about it, not from teachers, not from the classmates who used to crowd around Choi Seol. Nor had I ever picked up on any sign of it from Choi Seol himself. Then the noona’s answer came.
“The death registration was filed in mid-December, so it would’ve been the deadead of winter.”
