"I couldn't contact the number listed here as your emergency contact. Do you have anyone else to call to pick you up?" The nurse ruffled his hair as he typed away on his phone. Yun Daehyun's eyes widened and swallowed the bile creeping up his throat.

"A-are you sure?" His voice shakes and his eyes darted to look at Kim Dokja. Kim Dokja opens his mouth.

"He can't even r--"

"I think I can get home by myself. And you say this person is my seatmate in class? Surely we're close friends or something. He can accompany me home." Yun Daehyun smiles coyly. "Sorry, I'm having a bit of a memory problem. It's nothing serious though." He added.

The nurse looked at them suspiciously. "Didn't you say you didn't even know his name earlier?" The nurse pointed at Kim Dokja. Kim Dokja's breath hitches as he is put in the spotlight.

"D-did I? Haha…" Kim Dokja's brain went into a haywire. The nurse sighs.

"Anyways, that would be a good idea. I can't send Dokja back to class this late and it's not like he's irresponsible." The nurse went to grab his wallet and took out some money. "Here. Take the taxi if you would. I mean, I would've taken you both home myself but who knows if another Daehyun comes in today."

The nurse laughs, and the duo laughs as well. "But! Take your head to get looked at by a doctor ASAP, okay? It looks like a simple concussion for now, but the bleeding is concerning. Not to mention there might be other injuries too. Actually, Dokja, you take Daehyun to the hospital first before taking him home." He took out more money from his wallet.

Kim Dokja nodded and seemed to become a bit gloomy at the amount of responsibility placed on him.

"I'll fetch your bags for you. Class 3-B, isn't it?" Kim Dokja mutters a weak 'yes' and the nurse leaves again. Kim Dokja sighs and plops back down on his seat.

"What on earth did I just get myself into…?" He turns to look at Yun Daehyun. "What's wrong with you? If we just told the nurse you had amnesia…!" Kim Dokja burst out, anger and annoyance in his voice.

"Nobody can know I completely lost memories of myself." Yun Daehyun threatens as he looks dead straight into Kim Dokja's eyes. "I just have a feeling. And it's a bad sort of feeling."

Kim Dokja didn't talk back in fear. After all, he was a meek and a pushover kind of person. Maybe it was better if he had actually died back when he jumped.

"You have to help me until I get my memories back." Yun Daehyun put on his shoes again. "Or you know, you don't have to. Even so, I can compensate you fairly if you help me out."

Kim Dokja weighed his choices. If he were to help his strange and amnesiac seatmate, maybe the compensation is money. Then he can move out of his relatives' house. If he doesn't, it doesn't seem like his seatmate can hurt him since he can't even remember his own name.

"Dokja, don't be kind-hearted all the time. There's times you should live a little selfishly."

Kim Dokja crossed his arms and took a deep breath.

"And what would I get if I helped you?"

"Anything as long as it's within my means to obtain." Yun Daehyun's eyes lightened up a bit. "Would that mean you'd help me then?"

"Hey! I haven't said anything yet. Besides, what do you mean by 'within my means'? What's the limitation of that?" Kim Dokja's fear slowly faded away as a more friendlier atmosphere took over.

"Ha! You're a sharp one." Yun Daehyun grabbed his cardigan and rummaged through its pockets. "Looks like my gut feeling is right, tada!" He held up his wallet with a triumphant expression.

"I sure hope I'm not a little shopaholic and my parents aren't stingy…" He opens the wallet and Kim Dokja also peered in. What greeted them was the sight of a black credit card. The kind that doesn't have any credit limit.

Yun Daehyun pulled out the card with disbelief and Kim Dokja spoke first.

"Okay. What the fuck. I'm out, you were probably just screwing with me all along. I bet the whole amnesia thing is a fake too." Kim Dokja stands up to leave, sending Yun Daehyun into a panic and grabs his arm.

"No! Wait, wait! Hear me out! I didn't expect this either, I was thinking a couple small bills or so? Maybe an emergency credit card? Wait! You! You probably must've known I was a rich kid all along, didn't you?" Yun Daehyun complained, clinging tightly onto Kim Dokja's sleeve.

"H-hey! You talk for yourself, we never even interacted in the past two years!" Kim Dokja tries to shake Yun Daehyun's deadly grip, yet the determined noiret held onto him like a stubborn bug. "But now we did, and you're the only person who knows I've lost every bit of my memories!" Yun Daehyun cried desperately.

"That is because you pretended like you haven't! If we just told the nurse, then maybe he could help you better than I could!"

Yun Daehyun is left quiet. "I. Seriously. Cannot. Fucking. Tell. Anyone."

"Then at least tell me why. Other than some lame excuse like 'a bad feeling' or whatever." Kim Dokja exhaled as he sat back down on his chair.

Yun Daehyun looked at him with a complicated gaze.

"Look. I know I'm asking for too much here, and my actions so far probably don't make any sense to you. I swear, I'm not screwing with you and I really did lose my memories. I can't remember my name or anything about myself. My family, my address, everything. All I'm getting right now are stupid math formulas and a couple novels I don't remember reading." Yun Daehyun took a deep breath and continued.

"And I'm really, really sure that I'm forgetting something that I have to remember. A secret of sorts that I have to protect no matter what. And the more I look at you…"

"And the more you look at me…what?" Kim Dokja crosses his arms in doubt.

"I'm sure that it's somehow related to you. So tell me, what was our relationship before this?" Yun Daehyun grabs Kim Dokja's shoulder and leaned in. Kim Dokja swats his hands away.

"We're seatmates. Nothing more, nothing less. Hell, I didn't even know your name until just earlier! I seriously think that you're screwing with me. That secret of yours, maybe it's something creepy…! Pervert!" Kim Dokja scrowls and scooted his seat away from Yun Daehyun.

"Hey! Honestly, maybe you're the one screwing with me!" Yun Daehyun's aura of seriousness is completely replaced by an annoyed one.

"That impact to your head definitely jumbled something in that head of yours, is that why you're acting so weird?!"

Their argument is interrupted again by the nurse coming in again, with their bags in hand.

"Becoming fast friends, I see?" The nurse teases as he tosses their bags at them. Kim Dokja and Yun Daehyun catch their respective bags. The nurse stretched and sat down on his chair. "I called a taxi for the two of you, so you better get going to the gate. I also told the guard about your early leave."

The duo thanks the nurse as they scramble to get out of the infirmary. Yun Daehyun peered into his bag and checked the things he had brought.

"Uh…pencil case, textbooks, notebooks…Huh, what's this pouch?" He pulls out a small pouch and Kim Dokja teases him.

"What's that, a makeup kit? Never really took you for that kind of guy…ha!" Kim Dokja snickers and Yun Daehyun smacks him on the head.

Yun Daehyun opens the pouch. It contained an opened box of cigarettes, a lighter, and an unused razor blade.

"Oh fuck. What kind of person am I…? This shit is…damn. Holy fuck, fuck, fuck." Yun Daehyun quickly closed the pouch and shoved it deep inside his bag. Kim Dokja stared at him, jaw dropped and eyes wide open in shock. He started walking slightly faster.

"You're a psychopath. A delinquent. It was a mistake getting involved with you." Kim Dokja cries as Yun Daehyun chased after him.

"No, wait! Don't leave me behind!" Yun Daehyun calls after him. Finally, they were back walking side-by-side. Kim Dokja seemed a bit crestfallen.

"Who would've expected…?" Yun Daehyun taps Kim Dokja's shoulder and shows him a notebook. They stop for a bit and read through it. Most of it are incoherent doodles or bits of nonsensical passages. As they flipped through the pages, a card fell out.

"It's my national ID." Yun Daehyun picked it up.

The ID's photo had Yun Daehyun's face, but his hair is blond rather than the jet-black hair he has currently. His eyes are open, though it didn't look as such due to his narrow-eyes. A vibrant shade of gold colored his irises. He had a frown and his eyes looked a bit empty. The ID's address had it scribbled out with a black marker.

"Doesn't look much different from you now. But your hair's dyed?" Kim Dokja observes. "Oh hey, your address is written here." He points back at the notebook's page from where the ID had fallen out from.

"Looks like I won't have to stay at some motel or crash over with you!" Yun Daehyun cheers a bit, wrapping his arm over Kim Dokja's shoulder.

"Hey! What's this about crashing at my house?!" Kim Dokja is bitterly reminded of his relatives' house. He shook away the thoughts and focused on this strange seatmate he has now in tow.

…

"Isn't this place a goshiwon?" Kim Dokja pointed out.

"Yeah, I know." Yun Daehyun double checks his notebook. "It seems like I've been staying here."

They enter the goshiwon and are greeted by the cashier. Yun Daehyun pulls out the key he found again inside his bag.

"It says room 5…" Yun Daehyun cautiously walked through the hallway. He located the room door, and opened it.

"Come in, I guess." He invites Kim Dokja into the cramped room. Kim Dokja took a seat at the bed and Yun Daehyun looked around the room.

"Jeez, you're rich and you live in this place? How…?" Kim Dokja stared at the moldy ceiling. Kim Dokja was used to that kind of sight in his own room back at his relatives', but it was a wonder how come someone who has a card that only rich people owned lived in such a place.

"I don't understand it either…Maybe I ran away from home?" Yun Daehyun sat on the spot next to Kim Dokja and lied down. Kim Dokja sighs and buries his face into his hands.

Today has been a strange set of events for Kim Dokja. First, he witnessed his seatmate fall down the stairs. He had panicked and took the seatmate to the infirmary. The seatmate woke up and revealed he had gotten amnesia.

Kim Dokja and Yun Daehyun then shared a weird conversation regarding the latter's loss of memories. The more Kim Dokja pondered, the more the whole situation felt like it had come straight from the over-the-top dramas he saw frequently on television.

"Today doesn't feel real." Kim Dokja grunts and gently hits his head. "Maybe I had actually died a month ago and this is actually the purgatory?"

"Why a month ago and not today?" Yun Daehyun asks. "Because I…" Kim Dokja's gaze softened a bit and he looked away.

"Tried to commit suicide…" He quietly says. "I guess you don't remember how you were my roommate at the hospital too. You tried to commit suicide too…I think? Cut your throat and stuff." Kim Dokja snickers, but it didn't feel like he was teasing at all. He also collapses on the bed next to Yun Daehyun.

"I did? No wonder." Yun Daehyun pulled back the sleeves of his turtleneck. He had been wearing it underneath his uniform. Exposing his arm, it revealed a litter of scars and wounds. His skin is barely seen underneath them.

Kim Dokja peeked at Yun Daehyun's wounds. He took his own arm and pulled back the long sleeves of his uniform. It revealed a similarly scarred arm.

"We don't fall much far from each other, ha!" Yun Daehyun smiles, with a bitter look in his eyes. He stands up abruptly.

"What do you think, let's be friends?" Yun Daehyun smiles even bigger, but it doesn't help, making him look like he has evil motives. He extends his hand towards Kim Dokja.

"So what? You'll coerce me into helping you for free?" Kim Dokja pouts jokingly. Yun Daehyun flicks his forehead.

"No dumbass, that's another topic. Like, let's be buddies? Hang out and stuff?"

"No thanks, you're going to get me into your delinquent ways."

"I have amnesia?! And I have that credit card now, so I guess you can set your reward a bit more expensive…" Yun Daehyun shakes Kim Dokja's shoulders. Kim Dokja tries to stifle his chuckles but eventually bursted into a mirthful laughter. Something he hasn't done in a long time.

"Hahahaha! You look stupid. Fine." Kim Dokja finally nodded. Yun Daehyun's eyes seemed to mimic a piece of a freshly-polished gold jewel.

Kim Dokja never felt this way before. They were just strangers a couple hours ago, now they were joking with each other as if they've known each other for years.

Friends. It was a foreign concept to Kim Dokja. Ever since he was branded a son of a murder when he was 10, anything of that sort became like a luxury he can never have. And it wasn't like he really wanted one either, as his novels already felt enough for him.

Kim Dokja has never openly joked, teased, or interacted with anybody like he did with Yun Daehyun before in his life. He was always held back by the meaning of his name.

"Lone Child." Kim Dokja felt like he was finally forgetting the cursed meaning of his name.

Yun Daehyun is the crossroad of destiny that will soon alter the course of Kim Dokja's life.