Once Again

62

Jin looked listlessly at the window displays of the shops he passed. He was on his way to meet Jungkook for lunch. He didn't want to meet the other man but he knew he must. It was time to get to the bottom of everything he has discovered so far.

After he left Jungkook's apartment the first night, he had ridden the lift down with a middle-aged woman. The woman had stared at him intently and made him uncomfortable. Finally, he had broken the silence to ask if she needed help. But he was the one that needed help instead when she spoke.

Flashback...

"Seokjinnie?"

"Excuse me?"

"It's you, isn't it? Kim Seokjin-ssi? Where have you been? Did you go back to America?"

This woman knows me, Jin thought in wonder.

"Actually, Mrs..."

"Ahh Seokjinnie, you never used to call me so formally. You used to call me Eomeoni. Did America change you?"

"No, Eomeoni. I'm sorry," Jin apologised. "But no, I didn't go back to America. I was in an accident."

"Omo, omo! Are you okay, Seokjinnie?"

"Yes, Eomeoni. I am okay."

"Ah Seokjinnie, I'm glad you are okay. It would have been a shame to lose a good doctor like you."

So that vision was real. I was a doctor, and that was why I was wearing scrubs.

"Eomeoni, I'm sorry if this sounds rude," Jin began, "but how well did you know me?"

The woman laughed.

"I know you very well, Seokjinnie. I was your mother's friend. I delivered you when you were born."

What?

Jin was shocked. But he was elated at the same time. Finally someone who can help him find his past. Someone who will be completely honest with him.

"Why do you ask?" the woman asked, perplexed.

"Eomeoni," Jin took one of the woman's hands in his, "when I had my accident, I lost a large part of myself, my memories. Can you help me remember?"

"Oh Seokjinnie, I am so sorry. How terrible for you," the woman cried, aghast, as she cupped Jin's cheek with her free hand. "I will try but I don't know much about your life after your parents immigrated to America and took you with them. I was so happy when you came back to Korea. But you left again. I was so sad."

"Eomeoni, if you can help me remember my childhood and maybe some of what I did when you saw me again, that would be most helpful."

"Very well," the woman agreed. "Come. I have to get something at the shops before they close. Walk with me and I will tell you what I know."

The woman had been a fount of information, and as she spoke fondly of Jin's parents, it had triggered numerous memories to float to the surface.

Memories of his loving parents, his childhood home in a Seoul suburb, moving to America, learning a new language and a new way of life, and the tragic accident that took his parents' life and made him an orphan in a foreign country.

"I was sad to hear of their passing, and I wondered what happened to you. I didn't hear anything about you anymore after your father's lawyer contacted me to tell me that they had left me something in their will."

Jin frowned. His parents had bequeathed something to this woman. This told him that she must have been very close to them.

"Then you came back, and miracle of miracles, you came to work at the hospital I was working at."

"You're a nurse!"

And suddenly Jin got a vision of this woman wearing medical scrubs with cartoon characters all over them, and hugging him tightly in front of several people in lab coats, while crying happily, "Seokjinnie! You're home! You've come home!"

Another vision popped into his head immediately after, of the same woman twirling in front of him as she showed off the scrubs she was wearing. It was dotted with characters from Super Mario. He heard himself exclaim, "Eomeoni, you look amazing! The paediatrics ward will love it!"

Then a vision of the woman standing in front of him, her face sad as she rubbed his upper arms gently and said, "Be strong, Seokjinnie. I'm sure he's overwhelmed at his father's company, learning as much as he can so he can come for you soon. Have faith in him. He loves you."

After that particular vision, a lightbulb went off in Jin's head. At last, the mystery of the man who drove him to suicide could be cleared up. He will finally have an answer.

"Eomeoni, did I ever talk to you about someone in my life? A lover? A boyfriend?"

"Of course! I was so happy when I saw him in our building earlier this year. I was certain that you had reconciled. That he went back to America to get you."

"In our building? What do you mean?"

"Seokjinnie, you live here. You bought an apartment in this building. And now your boyfriend lives in it."

"My boyfriend?" Jin could feel his heart hammering in his chest as his body swung from hot to cold and back again. "Who, Eomeoni? What is my boyfriend's name?"

"Jeon Jungkook."