.  A voice from beside me cut in, “I’ll tell them myself.”


  “Will that be fine……? You’d still be confused……” replied the doctor.

  Yeo Ryung looked determined, showing no signs of nervousness in her eyes. She responded, “But this is my thing.”


  The doctor scratched his head with the tip of his pen, murmuring, “Geez, you’re really on the ball.” Then he nodded as a gesture to agree with her.

  We left the doctor’s room, giving him a slight nod. The Four Heavenly Kings, who were sitting side by side on the bench right in front of the room like strings of cocktail sausages, all stood up and flung us questions.

  The one who reacted the most loudly was, of course, Eun Jiho.

  “What did he say? When should her memories come back?”


  He talked the fastest that I’d ever seen in my life.

  I blinked in bewilderment for a second but soon replied meekly, “He said he isn’t sure. You know that’s how amnesia goes…… So, we decided to tell her parents……”


  Before I even finished speaking, Eun Jiho jumped in, pointing at Ban Yeo Ryung.

  “Then would you please persuade her to trust that she and I were friends……?”


  Just as he did to me, Ban Yeo Ryung put her hands around herself and stood away from Eun Jiho, before he finished talking. The word ‘disgust’ was written on her forehead.

  “Eww……”


  “Hey, I’m telling you, I’ve never received that kind of look from anyone ever.”


  I flinched instinctively at Eun Jiho’s remark.

  ‘Uh, wait a minute…… this story wouldn’t unfold so clumsily like, ‘No one ever looked at me that way,’ right? Come on, isn’t this going too fast?’


  Before I got to get lost in my crazy thoughts that way, Yeo Ryung’s voice caught me up.

  “Well, then I’d been staying patient before I lost my memories……”


  “Hey, you……”


  “So, why did you do that to me?”


  “What do you mean? What did I do wrong to you?”


  Geez…… I narrowed my eyes while looking at the two who began to raise their voices to quarrel.

  Watching them arguing with each other, as usual, in the long and narrow hallway, I started to feel that today was like another day. Even the fact that Ban Yeo Ryung had lost her memories seemed like a lie.

  In the end, the two began to yell at each other that Eun Hyung barely stopped them from making a louder fuss. To think of it, they were like strangers to each other, but how could they behave that way even in this kind of situation? Geez……

  While I narrowed my eyes once again, Eun Hyung spoke in a severe voice.

  “Jiho, Yeo Ryung is a patient. You can’t do that to someone who’s sick. Besides, you’re like a stranger to her, so think about how surprised she is right now.”


  “I can tell it from his face that he’s a bastard, so I’m okay.”


  Avoiding Eun Hyung’s glance, Yeo Ryung struck a retort to Eun Jiho while pouting her lips like a disrespectful child.

  “Hey!” Eun Jiho shouted again.

  Oh, lord. I grabbed my nape. That was when someone tapped my shoulders. As I turned my head, I saw Yoo Chun Young and Jooin rolling their eyes somewhere as if they were asking me to go far away from them. While I wondered what to do, there was another voice reaching my ears.

  “Yeo Ryung, you can’t treat Jiho like that too. According to your memories, you’ve met Jiho for the first time in your life today.”


  “.……”


  “Even though his first impression isn’t good, and you felt a strong dislike by instinct, you can’t say such bad words to him like that. Once you get to know him, Jiho is also……”


  Speaking to that extent, Eun Hyung paused all of a sudden. Once his calm and low voice, which sounded like a tune from a radio, disappeared, the hallway was immediately enveloped by a deafening silence.

  Meanwhile, Eun Jiho knitted his forehead as if he felt something was going on.

  He asked, “Why do you stop talking in the middle of the sentence?”


  “Once you get to know him, Jiho is also……” repeated Eun Hyung, then he suddenly turned his head toward Eun Jiho and began to observe him.

  Eun Jiho’s brows met in the middle.

  Meanwhile, I was watching the sight from a far distance, following Yoo Chun Young and Woo Jooin’s suggestion. I carefully opened my mouth.

  “Eun Hyung, you aren’t looking for the good sides of Eun Jiho, are you?”


  “.……”


  Instead of a response, Eun Hyung just smiled. It was a servile grin that I had never seen such a thing from him until now.

  Eun Jiho’s subdued voice then broke the ice in the hallway.

  “Kwon Eun Hyung with all the memories…… you’re worse than Ban Yeo Ryung who doesn’t have any memories.”


  “Jiho, I didn’t know it’d hurt you that bad. I was just trying to tease you a little, following the silly vibe.”


  On our way back home from the hospital, Eun Hyung uttered that way with a swiveling smile while putting his arm around Eun Jiho after a while. However, Eun Jiho grimaced. Removing Eun Hyung’s arm from his shoulder, Eun Jiho responded bitterly.

  “Hey, I’ve seen you for years. Do you think I can’t figure out whether you’re joking or not? Your face was like hesitating to tell the truth in front of a naïve kid.”


  “Ah……” A look of frustration slowly spread on Eun Hyung’s face.

  Watching the sight, Eun Jiho slapped Eun Hyung’s arm off him then strode away.

  “Hmm……” I heaved a sigh, looking at the two from a distance.

  “What’s wrong, mama?” asked Jooin, turning his head back. He was walking right in front of me.

  I lifted my finger and pointed at Eun Jiho.

  “Don’t we have to go calm him down?” I asked.

  “You know that he’ll get better after time. All we have to do is just leave him alone. To think of it, Eun Jiho will forget bad things the first among us. He’s like the most stable person.”


  I nodded at Jooin’s response. It was indeed correct that Eun Jiho was the most stable person. The efforts and struggles he’d been putting in and going through for his entire life as well as the self-pride he’d been achieving from them would have led Eun Jiho to become such a solid person.

  But wasn’t it quite different when it came to a relationship between friends? I hesitated for a moment then opened my mouth again.

  “Well, um…… but let’s say Yoo Chun Young lost his memories, and he’s trying to stay away from me, saying that he hates me. I’d get really hurt.”


  Yoo Chun Young, who was quietly walking beside Woo Jooin, turned his head back and looked at me. He seemed to be a little dumbfounded.

  “Why is it supposed to be me?” asked Yoo Chun Young.

  “You know we’ve been fighting and arguing with each other the most.”


  “Oh……”


  Waving my hand, I added, “If you’re suffering memory loss and says to me, ‘I need a glass of soda or I’ll die from feeling so heavy and stuffy,’ then I’ll get really hurt.”


  Yoo Chun Young was staring at me, frowning, but he soon stretched out his hand and disheveled my hair. ‘No, I won’t.’ Leaving those three words, then he walked ahead with quick steps.

  Perhaps my example was too exaggerated that I’d provoked his feelings. Well, but thankfully, he said he won’t. Then I switched my gaze to Jooin.

  “Anyway, what do you think about it? Although Eun Jiho looks like he’s just grumbling for a moment, don’t you think he’s actually very hurt?”


  “Hmm, now I come to think of it……” Jooin murmured suddenly with a serious look on his face. “If you do that to me……”


  Amid the situation, he wasn’t giving an example of Eun Jiho, his best friend since childhood. For me, it seemed too harsh. Although I was aware of it, these two boys weren’t expecting anything to each other.

  While I found some useless enlightenment, Jooin quickly raised his head.

  “Yeah, I think you’re right, mama,” he uttered.

  I replied, “You think so too, huh? Don’t we have to go soothe him before it gets too late?”


  That was when Eun Hyung, walking alongside Yeo Ryung and listening to our conversations, intervened with a confused look on his face.

  “But if Jiho’s feelings got hurt because Yeo Ryung is avoiding him in the first place, we can’t ask her to stop having resistance against him, can we?”


  “Hmm……”


  I heaved another sigh, confronting something unexpected. No, it was actually obvious–it was me who wasn’t able to see.