Chapter 6

When she woke again, it was dark and the boy was standing in her doorway again. She instinctively pulled her covers up to cover her chest and shoulders.

"They told me to leave," he said, "But I couldn't before I saw you"

He was smiling, but it looked forced and it didn't reach his eyes. His eyes looked like those of a dead man. It was like the eyes she saw reflected in the mirror. But his tone of voice didn't betray any kind of unhappiness.

"The nurse insisted that I couldn't come in unless you said I could, because I'm not family or anything," he continued, "so tell me I can come in"

He looked at her expectedly while she stared back at a loss for words, "Come on Ahjumma," he pleaded, "Just say, please come in, Enrique"

"Ah-Ahjumma?" she stuttered. Why would he be calling her a pretty woman?

Enrique took that as some sort of invitation and walked in, "Finally," he said as he sat down on her bed, "Do you know how uncomfortable those chairs out there are?"

She just stared at him blankly. Who was this strange boy?

"You know, Ahjumma," he said, "I'm supposed to drive you back home, but I don't think I can do it now"

"I… can walk" she replied

"No, no, no, Dok Mi," he said, "You can't go home. Not until you remember."

"Remember what?"

"Who I am, of course!" he said, "We went a lot of places together and I've been trying to think which place to take you. There's where we first met, but that's in fact your house, so we can't go there. I'm confident you'd just lock me out. We could go to my place, but again, it's too close to your house.

"Ideally, I'd take you where you first fell in love with me, but don't actually know where that is. So I maybe thought we could go where we fell back in love after you broke my heart, but I want us to be able to talk, which we can't do at a movie theater"

He leaned back until he was completely reclined next to her, "Love?" she stammered

"You know, I always thought you fell in love with me here. In this very hospital. You obviously don't remember, but I'm going to tell you. I had gotten hit by a car and you were out on a date with Jin Rak, but you heard I was hurt so you came rushing over. They wouldn't let you in at first, but you stayed until they would. You seemed so relieved when you saw me. I was already head over heels at that point, so you can imagine what I thought when I saw you. But that's not the important part.

"So that's what I think the first moment of mutual love was. Coincidentally, right when I got hit was when I realized I was in love with you. I was bleeding on the side walk and I saw you standing over me.

"It was the best thing I could've seen in front of me," he said, he grabbed her hand and rubbed his thumb over her palm, "My Ahjumma. The most beautiful girl in the world. I realized that I'd loved you the whole time we'd been friends. Well, very nearly the whole time. Anyway, I don't wanna tell you everything. There are some things you need to remember for yourself. So I'm not gonna tell you about our first kiss or our second, or the reason behind all of our fights.

"But I finally know where I'm gonna take you"

He pulled her hand up and moved his lips to it. Just before he would have kissed her, Dok Mi pulled her hand back, "You're wrong" she said simply, "I don't even know you, let alone love you"

"You don't know me right now, but you will." He replied, "You'll remember how much Enrique loves you and everything will go back to normal"

"Please leave my room" she said.

"Ahjumma-"

"I'm not your Ahjumma," she said, "I'm just Go Dok Mi, and Go Dok Mi doesn't have a boyfriend, and she hasn't been kissed, and she hasn't fallen in love, and she doesn't have anyone who loves her."

"22 year old Ahjumma doesn't have all that," he said. She could see that his smile had fallen slightly. He was still trying to keep the cheerful tone, but Dok Mi could hear his voice crack, "But you're not 22. You're 27 and you have any friends and a job and a man who loves you. Please, Dok Mi, try to remember"

She didn't believe him, but she could tell that he was at least partly telling the truth. There was a calendar in her room that read "February 20th 2014". She would be 27 now. But why was she so certain that she was 22?

"I hit my head" she said more to herself than Enrique

"Are you remembering?" he asked, she could see the glint of hope in his eyes and it killed her to take it away from him.

"I've remembered that there are things I've forgotten," she admitted, "But I don't remember what those things are"

"Then you believe me?"

Dok Mi looked down at her hand. Enrique was so close to her. He was a strange boy, but wouldn't get this close together unless they had been comfortable with each other at some point. Yet…

"No" she said quietly, "I don't love you" She didn't want to look up; she didn't want to see the hurt that would no doubt be in his eyes. She just wanted to go back to her life of solitude.

"I don't know you, so leave" she said again.

"I'm supposed to drive you home-"

"Get out or I'll call a nurse" she said, "I mean it, I don't want you here anymore"

Enrique stood up, "Call me, Go Dok Mi. Call me and I'll do whatever you ask. Just remember"

He walked out without another word. Dok Mi put her fingers to her face and found tears streaking down her cheeks. Enrique Geum mean nothing to you she thought

She repeated those words over and over as she cried herself back to sleep.