𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐃

EIGHT.

PAST

(Seven Years Old)

There had been someone before Y/n had met Juwon.

A pretty boy—perhaps less handsome than Juwon had been, but far more beautiful. Pretty in a manner that would have made girls wild, Y/n had thought when he had first met him, at the young age of seven. Miles before he had met Juwon. Miles before the accident—before he had lost all memories, miles before the survival show took place and Y/n was unaware of all his past, shadowed trails lying in his wake.

Silver hair, shining golden eyes. A painting.

"We moved here," The boy tilted his head to one side, seemingly unbothered by the heat that stuck onto Y/n's skin, "nice to meet you, Y/n."

"You know my name," Y/n said in awe, mystified, "how do you know my name?"

"I heard your grandmother screaming your name earlier," He offered, "I think you are the only person around my age, living here. I thought it would be nice to make friends."

Friends?

That strange word twisted and warped into shapes in the air; forming a singular sentence: no more loneliness.

Somehow the boy spoke rather regally for a seven year old. Like royalty. Far beyond his years.

"I'm Xin Hui," He greeted with those glittering golden eyes, "nice to meet you, Y/n."

Y/n swallowed, overwhelmed.

But he stuck out his hand anyway.

"Nice to meet you, Xin!"

—

PRESENT

Was Y/n aware of how much he really remembered? Partially.

He knew his childhood was a mere blip, faces unknown. He didn't recall the exact events that had happened, but he knew something must have happened to make him forget. During the survival show, Y/n had been advised to see a psychiatrist on his memory issues and he abided by it—but the advice wasn't too helpful.

"It seems to me," The person had murmured, "something must have happened in your youth. And after that, it became more of a reflex reaction; a trauma response—to block out any unpleasant things that happened after the event. Do you remember being in any situations that might have potentially triggered you? Your records are clean."

Y/n did not remember.

"I don't recall," he had said regretfully, "my family was too poor to pay for any sort of medical bills, so..."

"No one batted an eye? Surely someone should have helped you, if you were so severely injured to the point of amnesia."

There was his grandmother, Y/n had told the doctor, but she was old, and she probably thought everything was perfectly fine. After all..

Wait.

Was his grandmother even there, during whatever accident he might have gotten..?

Your grandmother? The doctor had furrowed his eyebrows, but it says here, that from age six to seven, you were under your parent's care? In the States? You moved from Korea to the States.

Huh? I don't recall...Y/n had trailed off. Then it hit him. The weight of his memory issue, whatever it stemmed from.

"And you forgot things that happened after that, right? So something happened in the States. But I have no record. But your parents, are they—"