Chapter Text
The first thing you noticed was the strong odor of medicine. Unfortunately, opening your eyes to get an idea of where you were didn’t help. The blindfold made sure of that. Your sense of touch told you that while you were blindfolded, your arms and legs remained unbound. Strange.
From what you could tell, you were laying on your back with a pillow under your head and a soft blanket covering you from your collarbone down past your feet, arms out over top. Your limbs felt leaden and your throat ached from thirst.
The next sensation shot through you like lightning. Your head felt like it was going to split open. Incredible pressure originating from the back of your head made you sure that even without the blindfold you would be blinded by the pain.
You let out a strangled cry then gasped in surprise when you felt a hand on your left arm. Then a deep male voice filled your ears. “[Your Name], you’re awake! I’ll help dull the pain. I thought I did enough before…” You felt another hand slip to the back of your head followed by a pleasant warmth, like sunlight on a spring day, emanating from the hand. Immediately the throbbing dulled, not completely gone, but manageable.
“I’m so sorry. It was hard to gauge how much pain you would be in once you woke up. Clearly I underestimated…” The hand behind your head moved and you felt it rest on the side of your head, thumb stroking your cheek lightly.
You opened your mouth to speak, but coughed instead. Just as you remembered how parched your throat was, you felt those hands move again. One raised your head slightly, while you felt a cup against your lips. You drank as greedily as you could given the level of exhaustion you felt, and immediately choked. “Slowly,” they chuckled softly.
You complied, taking one sip at a time over the course of a couple of minutes. When you finally felt your thirst quenched you turned your head away since your arms were too tired to move yet, then your head was lowered back onto the pillow.
There were so many questions ricocheting around your brain. “Where am I?” You croaked. The gentle voice replied, “You’re at home. You’ve been asleep since the accident a week ago.”
That only generated more questions. “What accident?” That was the only question that you could choose from the mass of them. There was a pregnant pause before they replied with their own question. “You don’t remember?” Followed by more silence.
You turned your head toward the voice. It sounded so familiar, yet you couldn’t place it. It was like the answer was in a room behind a locked door that you had no key to. Try as you might, the door was reinforced and you got the feeling that wasn’t the only information in that room.
“No.” You felt your chest tighten as you began to realize you didn’t know hardly anything about yourself or who you were. You clearly remembered the very basics of being human and such, but there was a blank space where anything personal should be.
“Is [Your Name] me?” You could feel tears pricking the corners of your eyes. A sharp intake of breath from the stranger only deepened your concern. It would seem whoever they were, they likely knew more about you than you did at this point.
“Yes… I knew your head injury was severe, but this is beyond what I could have imagined. Oh no, gongjunim, it’s okay, it will all be okay.” You felt their hands on either side of your head as their forehead pressed gently to yours.
While you knew the action was intended to be calming, you still felt the constriction of your chest which made your rapid breaths shallow. Your hands went clammy and the tears became uncontrollable sobs. It was like you were in a spiraling free fall that you soon identified as a panic attack.
Their hands went away only for you to feel whoever they were shift your torso forward as they slipped their body behind you. Legs on either side of yours, back supported by their solid chest, they ran their hands up and down your arms tenderly. “Listen love, I need you to breathe in and out when I do. Can you do that for me?” A whimper and nod was all you could manage. “Alright, let’s start now. Breathe in. One, two, three, four. That’s perfect. Now out. One, two, three, four. You’re doing great sweetheart.” Their finger tapped the rhythm on your arm, helping to ground you. “In. One, two, three, four. Out…”
This went on for what felt like an eternity before you finally felt yourself relax against this stranger who had talked you through your panic attack. There was still so much unrest in your mind, but finally you found your words again.
“I feel like I know who you are, but I can’t…” You could feel the words choked in your throat by more tears threatening to pour. One arm moved around your waist as their other hand cradled your head while they remained sitting up behind you.
When they spoke again you could hear the pain in their voice. “It’s okay, love, after the kind of injury your head took amnesia is something that can happen. I promise we will all help you recover and maybe get some memories back.” We? All? How many people had you forgotten?
“I will say that memory retrieval after experiencing amnesia is not necessarily common, but we will do whatever we can to make it happen for you. For now, I’ll start with telling you my name and who I am to you.” A heartbeat later and you heard their voice next to your right ear. “I'm Felix, and I'm your boyfriend.”