Amnesia

IX.

Jeongguk found Remington standing alone in the child-size bedroom upstairs in the farmhouse. From a distance it appeared she was looking out the window, but she was actually just resting her elbows on the windowsill and staring off into space. In her hands was the lighter she had used to clean the syringe for Taehyung. She was clicking it on and off, on and off.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She flinched and spun around to him, her eyes wide.

He raised his hands defensively as if she were a scared animal that needed to be calmed down. "Sorry," he said. It felt like that had been the only word he had ever said to her. Granted, they had really only just met and Jeongguk really knew nothing about her. Maybe that's why he had just wandered the whole house searching for her.

"No," she said, setting the lighter down on the windowsill. It was only then that her eyes were red and glossy, and her cheeks were pink. She had been crying. "I'm sorry. I'm a little jumpy."

He couldn't blame her for that. He was feeling a little jumpy too.

Seeing that she wasn't moving, he walked to the bed and sat on it, trying to look at ease, but mostly he was internally wondering just how germ-ridden the bed cover was.

Remington tilted her head back and wiped away a few drops of water that had been forming underneath her eyes. It seemed she wasn't the type to let others see her cry. Jeongguk thought that he may have been one of those people, a long time ago. But being one of those people made it difficult to allow others in, and Jeongguk had come to appreciate the quiet warmth that came from allowing others in.

"Why'd you come up here?" Remington asked.

"Do you want me to leave? I'm sorry if I'm bothering you," Jeongguk said. He was messing things up already and he hadn't even done anything.

To his surprise, Remington laughed wetly, choking for a second. "You need to stop apologizing so much. That what my mom tells me when I feel like I'm screwing up a lot. She says 'stop apologizing, drink some water, and chin up, buttercup'."

"'Drink some water'?" Jeongguk repeated.

"My mother is very insistent on the health and beauty benefits of staying well hydrated. Personally, I prefer orange juice."

Finally, they were on good footing. "I'll stop apologizing. Anyway, I'm here because anywhere is better than being down there."

Remington blinked. "What's going on down there?"

"You haven't heard yet?"

Remington shook her head with a slight blush, brushing a lock of long hair behind her ear. "I've been thinking."

Jeongguk shrugged. "Namjoon realized that all our jewelry got taken and is freaking out about the ring that Yoongi-hyung gave him being gone."

Remington's eyes went wide and she quickly raised both hands to her ears, obviously searching for earrings that weren't there, then she looked at her bare wrists.

"Shit," she muttered. "I didn't notice." With a groan of frustration, she hit her own wrist gently. "Dammit, those were my grandmother's earrings!"

"But they weren't worth anything!" Namjoon wailed in Korean from the lower level. Jeongguk winced.

"Wow," Remington said. "Should we go help?"

He shook his head. "I don't think there's anything we can do."

Remington placed her hands near her neck like she was trying to see if there was a necklace there. "I lost my lanyard," she said.

"The thing from the concert?"