Hyedam wrapped his legs around the heavy blanket pressing down on his body and pushed it to the side. Feeling the coolness envelop his body, different from inside the blanket, Hyedam tossed and turned a bit more before letting out an audible yawn and stretching his limbs.
He hadn’t properly slept for almost three days. After finally getting a good night’s sleep without any dreams, Hyedam slowly blinked his eyes.
As his blurry focus cleared and he realized that what he was looking at was someone else’s face, a strange sound escaped his lips.
“Whoa. Ugh. Ah. Uh.”
Even after he struggled to sit up, rubbed his face dry, and raised his head, the person’s face was still there, not disappearing. Meeting the gaze of the man sitting below the bed looking at him, Hyedam slightly stuck out his tongue to moisten his dry lips.
“Are you… awake?”
When he asked in a voice full of sleep, what he received in return was a slight nod of the head.
After the initial shock passed and he remembered last night’s events, realizing that the person looking at him was the man from yesterday evening, Hyedam supported the back of his neck with his hand and gently moved it to loosen his stiff body.
He’s even more handsome awake than when he was asleep.
The most perfect part of his face, which maintained perfect balance, was his eyes—beautifully colored in a way that was difficult to describe in words. While his abundant, long, thick double eyelids were attractive, his vivid green eyes changed color moment by moment depending on the angle of light coming through the window.
“Listen. Don’t misunderstand. Last night you were in front of our house, your clothes were wet from the rain so I changed them for you. There was some blood by your head here, like you were injured. So I put some red medicine on it, okay? I didn’t cause that wound either, so don’t misunderstand. Still, you never know what might happen, so I think you should go to the hospital later. Also…”
Hyedam was hurriedly explaining the events of last night when he trailed off under the other’s intense gaze. Why isn’t he saying anything? Could it be amnesia? No way, that can’t be…
“Your name and age are…?”
He carefully asked the unresponsive man about his personal information.
“…”
“…Where are you from?”
“…”
“Ah… maybe you don’t understand Korean?”
After watching the man’s eyebrows twitch uncomfortably with each word, Hyedam raised his hand and wiped his face again.
“And you?”
Just as Hyedam was thinking about finding his phone to turn on a translation app, he heard Korean and quickly answered.
“Lee Hyedam. 22 years old. Currently attending university, this is my house, and my family is…”
Hyedam, who had been rambling on, suddenly stopped mid-sentence and shut his mouth. Family. Family. His chest felt tight as the part he hadn’t thought of in his confusion emerged.
Anyway, having finished his introduction, Hyedam looked at the man who seemed deep in thought, touching his chin.
“I’ve told you about myself, so you should tell me too.”
“My…”
Geez. It’s so hard to get a simple introduction. Whether it was the discomfort from his chest or the stuffiness from the scattered thoughts that came to mind, Hyedam shifted his position as an uncomfortable feeling wrapped around his body.
Hyedam’s eyes trembled slightly as the man gently pressed his forehead, unable to finish his sentence.
“Yes.”
Go on, tell me. I’m listening. My… Don’t stop there, keep going. I have too many other things to do besides you right now.
“My head hurts.”
Hyedam’s shoulders, which had been tense from focusing on the man, slumped down.
“Could it be that you can’t remember?”
“It feels like there’s fog in my head.”
Hyedam, who had spoken first while suppressing his anxiety, pressed his slightly parted lips together at the quick response.
“Let’s talk while eating something! You can’t think straight when you’re hungry, right?”
Seeing the man sitting quietly as if trapped in his own world, Hyedam changed the subject and quickly got up.
Does he really not remember? He couldn’t keep pressing him when he looked so troubled with that stiff expression. Well, maybe after eating and thinking calmly, he might remember things one by one.
Amnesia sounds nice in theory, but such a cliché plot device from TV dramas doesn’t happen that easily in real life.
Again, there was no answer, but Hyedam, who opened the refrigerator first after leaving the bedroom, glanced at his open room with a troubled expression.
He had introduced it as his house to the man, but it was actually his grandmother’s house. The house where he had lived with his grandmother who raised him after his parents passed away early in an accident. He had been living in a small monthly rental near his university when he rushed down after suddenly receiving news of his grandmother’s passing.
Yesterday, after finishing the three-day funeral, he had placed his grandmother with his parents. Now he had to organize the place his grandmother had left and return to where he had been living. There was no time to be lost in grief over his grandmother’s passing. He had final exams to take and corporate internship applications to submit. As his grandmother used to say, the living must go on living.
Hyedam’s grandmother was the kind of person who would want him to live his life more diligently rather than wallowing in sorrow.
Hyedam had come without much thought and hadn’t gone shopping, so all that was in the refrigerator were some side dishes his grandmother used to eat and a few pieces of fruit given by the neighbor.
Seeing the number 109H on the rice cooker’s display, Hyedam clenched his molars tightly. Then he took out some fruit, whatever he could grab. At least there’s this. We can make do with fruit for breakfast. I’ll have to send this person away at noon and put the house up for sale, then buy some food.
While calming his churning feelings and peeling an apple, Hyedam was startled by a “thud” sound and quickly turned his head toward it.
“Ah…”
And there was the man, crouched down holding his head after hitting it on the doorframe while coming out.
“Are you okay? That’s… not a particularly low doorway, but you’re quite… very tall…”
What was the standard height of doors in homes again? If the sound that startled him wasn’t from the previous injury but from the impact of just hitting his head on the doorframe, it would be understandable if he said he lost his memory from that.
After putting down the apple he was peeling and washing his hands, Hyedam’s eyes fell on the first aid kit on the table. What treatment do you give for hitting your forehead on a doorframe? As he rummaged through the first aid kit, a small tube of ointment came into his hand.
Although he wasn’t sure exactly when to use this ointment and its expiration date had passed by about a year, it seemed better to apply it than do nothing. Approaching the man and crouching down, Hyedam first examined his face.
Their eyes met as the man was frowning with one hand still covering the upper part of his forehead. Hyedam smiled awkwardly and showed him the ointment. When the man removed his hand, finding the wound on his forehead wasn’t difficult.
It was distinctly reddish and protruding compared to other areas.
As Hyedam carefully applied the expired ointment to the man’s forehead with his index finger, he felt like he might burst into laughter and bit down hard on his molars. His emotions were running wild.
The day after sending off his only blood relative. It happened to rain, and he picked up a collapsed man in front of the house who turned out to be exceptionally handsome but clumsy? And he lost his memory too? This seemed like material suitable for a sitcom or drama.
Ironically, since he himself wasn’t a woman or an omega, it probably wouldn’t be a romance. Anyway, after finishing applying the ointment, Hyedam slowly moved back. The man’s handsome appearance and large build seemed unreal, but the way he carelessly came out and hit his head on the doorframe, wincing in pain, made him seem human.
“Are you okay?”
“No, not at all.”
Usually when someone asks if you’re okay, don’t people say they’re fine even if they’re not?
“Let’s eat something and talk. There’s nothing else to eat in the house, so even if you’re not okay with this, there’s nothing I can do.”
An awkward silence followed as they looked at the bumpy fruit on a well-used plate, not even a pretty dish. As he picked up the apple with a fork that seemed excessively small for his hand, Hyedam popped a peeled tangerine segment into his mouth.
[Just eat well. Animals and people don’t eat when they’re sick. Whatever happens, you need to eat to live. The living must go on living.]
When Hyedam or the animals they kept at home were sick, his grandmother would first bring food. Indeed, even meat that he normally liked wouldn’t go down when really sick. Anyway, the man in front of him was eating, so he should be fine.
“You don’t remember your name?”
Having finished the tangerine, Hyedam spoke while biting one end of a dried persimmon. Besides organizing this house, he needed to resolve the matter of this man before leaving.
“I don’t remember anything—my name, age, where I live, why I’m here—so even if you ask, I have nothing to tell you.”
“As I said earlier, you were leaning against the wall in front of this house unconscious last night. It was late, and it was raining, so I brought you here. You didn’t have a wallet or a phone. Oh, I took off your wristwatch and put it on the desk next to the bed. I was going to contact the police station, but it was too late… Do you want to go to the police station with me in a little while?”
“Police station?”
“The police. This is a small town, so there’s a small police branch. I need to go into town for some business, so we can go together then.”
“…I don’t think so?”
Hyedam almost asked “What nonsense?” in response to the man who was answering after frowning, as if trying to recall something.
“My head aside, my left ankle is uncomfortable too.”
“I didn’t do either of those things. Those were injuries you had from the beginning. I just brought you to my house, and your clothes were wet from the rain so I changed them, that’s all. Besides, I didn’t even know your leg was hurting!”
Hyedam quickly waved both hands and spoke rapidly, feeling the suspicious glance directed at him. But his words seemed to lack credibility as the man’s eyes narrowed, and Hyedam could feel him slowly looking him up and down.
