Start Again

Chapter Forty-Four

Joon Soo

"Baek Hu, I need you to do me a favour," I said as I called him one morning.

A couple of hours later, we were standing in front of a door that supposedly lead to my apartment. I pulled the cover on the door down and was confronted by numbers.

"As if I will remember a pin code," I said to him.

"Do you have your wallet on you?" Baek Hu asked.

"Yes." I pulled it out and passed it to him.

"No, your real one," he said after flicking through it.

"Oh, of course." I pulled the wallet I picked up from the hospital out of my other pocket and passed it to him.

Baek Hu took no time at all to extract a card and check the back. He punched in a couple of numbers and the light on the door went green. He waved his hand to the door, inviting me to open it.

I put my hand on the cold metal pole, and, after a deep breath, I opened it.

The room inside did not seem foreign, yet I did not completely recognise it either. As I walked in slightly and took my shoes off, I scanned over the room. My hazy dreams seem to fit this place. I remembered the dining table where we completed that puzzle. As my eyes swept across the room, they came to a halt when they met another's eyes.

"Annyeong," she barely made audible.

"Annyeonghaseyo," I replied with a slight bow.

"Annyeong, Audrey," Baek Hu said.

"You know each other?" I asked Baek Hu.

"Yes..." he trailed off.

"This is my apartment, right?" I asked her.

She gave a small nod.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm just collecting some... Do you not remember me at all?"

I cocked an eyebrow and glanced over her, when suddenly a memory came to mind. Her face lit up. "Oh! You were at the hospital, right?"

The excitement immediately dropped from her face and she said, "Yes."

"That's not what you're referring to?"

She let out a sigh and wheeled a suitcase out of the room she was standing in. "It's fine. It doesn't matter anyway."

She walked passed me and slipped her shoes on.

"Who are you, by the way?"

She turned around and forced a smile. But the smile didn't mask the sorrow in her eyes. "I'm Audrey Jones. We knew each other once... before your accident."

I nodded. "I'm sorry that I can't remember you. Were we close?"

"Well... no. No we weren't." Without another word, she slipped out of the apartment.

"If we weren't close, then why does it seem like she was living here?" I asked Baek Hu.

"Do you really not remember her?" he responded.

I shook my head. "Why? Is she someone important?"

"Yes."

"Would she... possibly have anything to do with the girl I was going to marry?"