Chapter 4

It had been hours and there had been no word about her condition. Jin Rak had finally gone home saying something about a deadline tomorrow. Dok Mi wouldn't have liked Enrique staying in the hospital all night waiting, but he couldn't bring himself to leave. What if she woke up and he wasn't there?

Enrique knew it was selfish of him, but he wanted to be the first thing she saw when he finally regained consciousness. He wanted her to know that he's meant it when he said he'd always be by her side.

But with every passing hour, Enrique grew more worried. He didn't know much about head injuries, but he was pretty sure that being out cold for 8 hours wasn't a good sign.

He wanted to see her, but every time he tried to sneak into her room, he'd been reprimanded by a doctor. Since he wasn't family, he could not be in her room without her consent. So he sat in the waiting room sulking and waiting and worrying.

It was day break by the time someone walked out. Enrique had been dozing for a few hours in an uncomfortable chair and he was sore beyond belief, but when he saw a nurse walking out, he leaped up and ran to her as if he'd slept a full night.

"Is she alright? Can I see her? Is she awake? Please let me see her. Has she asked for me? Is she okay? Can I see her?" questions flew out of Enrique's mouth faster than the nurse could answer them.

"She woke up a while ago. She's a bit disoriented and hasn't asked to see anyone. She hasn't said anything much, actually. She hasn't even asked what happened," the nurse replied, "A doctor is checking her out right now, but as soon as she's done, I can ask if you can go in."

"But is she alright?"

"Everything seemed normal on her CAT scan. No internal bleeding, no real damage. She suffered a minor concussion though so she's going to be sore for a while"

"She's okay" Enrique said mostly to himself.

"It looks like it," the nurse said, clearly affected by his own joy.

Enrique gave her one of his grins that has a tendency to make hearts melt, "Hey nurse" he said happily, "Do y'think I could see her now?" he asked.

"I don't know…"

He clasped his hands in front of his chest, "Pretty please," he begged, "I know Ahjumma would want to see me"

She didn't seem entirely convinced, but she said, "Fine, but don't tell anyone it was me that let you in."

He laughed giddily and followed her to a room near the back of the ER. He had to restrain himself from skipping. The past 12 hours had been hell, but Go Dok Mi was alright and they would be able to leave soon and go on the very special date Enrique had planned.

"You need to tone it down a bit," the nurse said, "She's nervous and probably has one hell of a headache."

Enrique nodded solemnly but he couldn't quite make the smile disappear from his face. He glanced into the room and saw her. A doctor was shining a light in her eye. She didn't seem to notice him. She tried not to blink as the ray pierced her cornea, but it was obviously causing her discomfort. He had the strong urge to push the doctor away and hug all of her pain away. For now, he settled to just stand in the doorway and wait for the Doctor to leave.

She glanced over at him once, but she didn't say anything and took her eyes off of him quickly. She didn't look over again until the Doctor was walking out of the room.

"Okay, Go Dok Mi," he said, "I want to keep you here for observation through the night, but you should be able to home in the morning"

She nodded, but didn't speak. That was odd, she was normally so polite. Enrique was about to walk in when the Doctor grabbed his arm.

"May we talk for a moment?" he asked. Enrique nodded and allowed himself to be pulled away from Dok Mi's room, "You've been here a night right?"

"Yes"

"And you're her boyfriend?"

Enrique hesitated. It seemed like such an understatement to call the woman who comprised his whole world simply his girlfriend, but he nodded anyways.

"You might want to sit down then" the Doctor said.

Enrique felt panic climb back up his throat. The nurse said she was alright, but maybe she was wrong.

"All I want is to see Go Dok Mi," he said

The Doctor looked at Enrique with pity. Pity was never a good sign coming from a Doctor, "I'm sorry, you can't"

"She's awake now, isn't she? I was told I could see her as soon as she woke up"

"With her consent, yes"

"Well, ask her. I'm sure she wants to see me"

"We have, Enrique"

"What?" Enrique felt all the air leave his lungs.

"What the nurse told you, it wasn't exactly true. Me and the head nurse decided it's be best to keep her condition under wraps until we decided how best to handle it," the Doctor said. There were a million things Enrique wanted to ask, but before he could say anything the Doctor continued, "She woke up hours ago, Enrique. And we told her that her boyfriend was here and asked if she wanted to see him"

"Then why didn't you get me when she first woke up?"

"Her answer… was a bit worrying," the Doctor took a deep breath and looked Enrique in the eyes, "She said she didn't have a boyfriend. We told her that Enrique Geum was here to see her and she insisted she didn't know anyone by that name."

"What?" Enrique said.

"We wanted to run a few more tests after that, to make sure she had no brain damage. Everything looked alright, so we diagnosed her with short term amnesia."

"But we've known each other for almost three years. That's not a short term relationship"

"To a 27 year old it is" the Doctor replied, "We questioned her extensively. She thinks she's 22. Just out of college and living in her first apartment. She has no memory of her current job and no memory of the accident. It took quite a lot of prompting to even get that much out of her. She's very quiet."

But she wasn't quiet. She was dead inside. 22 year old Go Dok Mi was a sad, broken person who rarely left her apartment. Enrique wished he'd taken the Doctor's advice to sit down. He felt like he was about to collapse. His whole world had just crumbled around him and there was nothing he could have done to prevent it.

You could have not let her leave by herself, a voice in his head said, it's your fault she fell.

Enrique felt like throwing up. It was he who had the idea to wait outside her window. It was he who ordered her to meet him upstairs instead of going up himself. The whole accident was his fault. He just destroyed the only thing in his life that truly mattered to him. And all because he had planned a special date for his Ahjumma.

Enrique put his head between his knees, desperate not to cry in the middle of a crowded room. He took a few deep breaths before sitting back up.

"So…" he said slowly, "what should I do?"

"I think you should leave, Geum" the doctor said bluntly, "Seeing you will only confuse and make her road to recovery more difficult. Let people she still knows help her and wait until she remembers"

"You don't understand," Enrique said, "She has no one. Her parents are divorced, her grandmother is dead, and she only leaves her apartment when she needs to. Her closest friend is her neighbor who she met once and I don't think she even knows his name. She was like that until I came into her life"

"Well then" the Doctor said, "There's no one to drive her home in the morning and I don't want her to drive herself or to walk. Maybe come back and take her home. See what happens"

It wasn't much, but it was something. It was a small hope that this all might be over in the morning and they could continue to be each other's worlds.