"Sam, you"re kidding, right?", Hannah became anxious.Before Samantha could answer, her attention landed on Seo Joon who was wearing a hospital gown, "Joon. Why are you also in the hospital? Did we fight? I must"ve drunk a lot last night."
"What is happening? Sweetheart..", Mrs. Kim was very perplexed.
"I"ll call the doctor.", said Mr. Kim.
Seo Joon walked towards Samantha"s bed and asked her gently, "Dopey... what"s the last thing that you remember?"
Samantha scanned her memories, "I... I... drank a lot yesterday because Hannah said I should enjoy my birthday. I guess I blacked out. S-sorry mom."
Daniel who was still quiet at the side could not believe what he was seeing in front of him. How could Samantha not recognize him?
Seo Joon, Mrs. Kim, and Hannah exchanged looks. When the doctor arrived, Samantha answered all his questions. The doctor asked for the family to let the patient rest while he explains what"s going on. Outside of Samantha"s room, all of them gathered very nervously.
"I"m afraid the patient is suffering from another Dissociative Amnesia."
"How is that possible? Didn"t she just recover all her lost memories? How come this is happening again?", Alice Kim started to feel agitated.
"I a.s.sume because of what happened last night. This may have caused her to enter into another period of Dissociative Amnesia. Recurrent periods are actually quite common."
Everyone was quiet while they listened to the doctor explain everything. It was very hard for everyone to see Samantha in this state.
Seo Joon who was sitting in a wheelchair asked the doctor, "But I don"t get it. How come she doesn"t remember Daniel?"
"Right, also she thinks her birthday was yesterday. That was more than 2 months ago!", Hannah added.
"It"s possible that she may have forgotten her memories from a few months ago. You see.. normally, amnesia is caused by physical factors like a brain injury, whereas Dissociative Amnesia does not have a physical cause but a psychological one. And usually, it is caused by an extremely stressful or traumatic experience. Although it is less common, intense feeling of guilt or other conflicts can be the cause of Dissociative Amnesia."
Their conversation lasted for a few more minutes before the doctor had to leave. When they returned inside the room, Samantha was still awake.
"What took you guys so long? What did the doctor say?"
"Samantha, Princess... we need to talk.", Mr. Kim said as he approached Samantha.
Mrs. Kim and Hannah sat on the sofa, Seo Joon was near Samantha"s bed while Daniel stood by the door.
Daniel seemed to have a lot on his mind. He looked at her while trying to study what was on her mind. "Has she really forgotten me?", Daniel"s heart thumped thinking that Samantha doesn"t recognize him.
The family decided to tell her everything, including 12 years ago and the recent happenings. It took them a while but they were all very patient as they listened to Samantha"s father explain everything to her. Samantha was silent the whole time, her face is expressionless even after Mr. Kim had finished talking, she still didn"t say anything.
"Sis?", Seo Joon probed.
Samantha sighed before she spoke, "Can you... can you guys leave?"
"But--", Mrs. Kim tried to speak but Samantha didn"t let her finish.
"I want to be alone."
Everyone nodded except Daniel. Mrs. Kim went over to Samantha, "I"m sorry, sweetheart. We"ll let you rest.", she said before she kissed her daughter"s forehead.
Samantha turned her back against them and stared at the wall. When all of them left her room, she started sobbing. No one knew what was on Samantha"s mind the whole time but they let her be alone for now thinking that she needed time to absorb everything.
---
Outside her door, Daniel sat on the bench looking crushed. What was he supposed to do if Samantha never remembers him?
Seo Joon was the first one to console Daniel, "Don"t worry. She"ll remember you, we"ll help her. We all will."
Daniel only gave a slight nod. He"s been lacking sleep for a few days now. His eyes had dark circles around them and he looked skinnier.
Chairman Kim felt bad for Daniel, "Son, you should go home for now. Please take a rest."
"I want to stay."
"But you need to take care of your body too. If you want to look after Samantha, you also need to be healthy."
Daniel nodded, "I"ll stay for a bit more."
Mr. & Mrs. Kim helped Seo Joon go back to his room while Hannah left to go home.
An hour later, the door of Samantha"s room opened. Samantha saw Daniel sitting on the bench, leaning on the wall with his eyes closed. She was surprised to see him there, she stopped and observed the man in front of her and her heart ached when she saw his eye bags.
Her hand raised and reached out to touch his face but before she could do so, Daniel woke up. She retracted her hand right away and cleared her throat. "What are you doing here?"
Daniel immediately stood up, "I was... I was just resting."
"This isn"t your house why would you sleep here?"
Daniel pursed his lips, his heart throbbed as he wanted to embrace the woman in front of him but he could only wish. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Nowhere. It was stuffy inside."
"...", Daniel found it awkward. How was he supposed to talk to someone who doesn"t remember him? "Would you--"
Before Daniel could finish his sentence, Samantha started to walk away. "I"m taking a walk."
"This girl is so snooty to people she doesn"t know. Tch", Daniel cursed in his mind.
He followed Samantha behind and she noticed his presence, "Why are you following me?"
"I"m not, I"m also taking a walk."
Samantha eyed him and he just shrugged his shoulders with a grin on his face,
"What? I like to walk."
Samantha glared at him and continued to walk around the hospital until they reached the lobby. She stopped in front of a vending machine and started tapping her sides.
"Are you thirsty? What do you wanna drink?", Daniel offered.
Samantha extended her hand like she was asking for alms, "I don"t have cash. Can I borrow some?"
Daniel was a bit taken aback by her att.i.tude. He found her silly but he gave her a bill anyway.
Samantha then took the bill and used it on the machine but the juice bottle was stuck and didn"t come out. She started to tap the machine a few times.
"That"s not gonna work-", before Daniel could say anything else, Samantha kicked the machine and the bottle rolled out.
"You were saying?", she said haughtily before she walked away.
Daniel just stared at her back as he chuckled to himself.
Samantha returned to her room and Daniel followed behind.
"You should go home."
Daniel stood by the foot of her bed, "Are you annoyed by my presence?"
"You look like you could use some sleep and there"s nothing else to do here anyway, I"ll just probably sleep all day."
Daniel was silent for a minute before he spoke, "Okay. I"ll be back later tonight. And..."
Samantha raised her eyebrow and Daniel walked towards her. Her heart beat loudly seeing him draw closer to her and before she knew it, Daniel wrapped his arms around Samantha very tightly.
"Let me hug you for a minute. Just for a minute."
Samantha didn"t move and they stayed in the same position for a minute before Daniel let her go. As soon as he did, Samantha immediately felt empty.
He looked into her eyes and she looked back at him, "Can you...- Please try to remember me.", Daniel leaned forward, his lips a few inches away from her... but he lifted his chin to kiss Samantha on the forehead.
Daniel gave her a smile before he turned around and left her room, "See you later."
Samantha slumped on her bed as her chest heaved up and down and her eyes became red. She calmed herself down by breathing in and out deeply. When she recovered, she took her phone out and called a.s.sistant Chen. They spoke on the phone for a while before she hung up the call and went to sleep.
----
At 8pm, Samantha was in Seo Joon"s room. Her brother was asleep and her parents went home. She sat by his bed and looked at her brother tenderly. "Joon... I"m sorry... I"m really sorry. Don"t worry, I won"t let you get hurt again."
Samantha left her brother"s room after a few minutes and then she met her a.s.sistant outside the hospital with a bag on her hand.
"Madam, everything is ready."
Samantha nodded and boarded the car, "Let"s go."
----
Daniel"s phone rang and he picked it up while he was changing his clothes. "h.e.l.lo?"
"Daniel, Is Samantha with you?", Hannah asked.
His eyes widened in surprise, "What are you talking about? Isn"t she in the hospital?"
"Oh G.o.d. OMG. She"s gone. We don"t know where she is. We can"t call her either and her things are no longer in her room."
Everyone was panicking when they realized that Samantha left the hospital. Daniel looked through everywhere and everything using his contacts. It was almost midnight when Daniel received a phone call,
"Mr. Cho, I found the last location. It looked like she was heading to the airport. I"m afraid she has already left the country."
Daniel"s blood boiled upon hearing the news, he slammed his hand to the steering wheel. His expression darkened as he clenched his teeth, "How dare you leave me, Samantha?"
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Dear Readers,
This will be the only chapter for today. I will post the next update either on Sunday or Monday at the regular scheduled time: (GMT+8) 8:00 am - 9:00 am. 2 chapters as usual.
Don"t worry, I"m just stocking up chapters for rainy days. My work schedule changed and my new routine is messing up with my brain. I couldn"t write longer than usual because I ended up getting tired. I used to have more than 10 chapters in stock after a publish but because of the change, I wasn"t able to write as much. >.< i="" thought="" i="" had="" writer"s="" block="" but="" my="" brain="" just="" wasn"t="" working="" properly="" due="" to="">
I just want to make sure that I will always have 2 chapters to publish each day for the week or at least 5 days. Thus the need to write in advance. Anyhoo..
Thank you for your continued support ♥ I appreciate every single one of you! h.e.l.lo to my fellow Filipinos <3 yes,="" i="" am="" from="" the="" philippines="" for="" those="" of="" you="" who="" were="" curious.="">