Inoubliable Mémoire [Unforgettable Memory]

5] Her Past

Chapter Five
|Her Past|

"No, I can't" She told me firmly.

I wasn't surprised at the fact that she was colour blind. Instead, I was surprised at how honest she was a to a complete stranger, me.

I exhaled the breath that I was holding in, "I thought so."

Her eyes widened when she heard my comment. I smiled in response and waited for her to say something first. She looked away from me and leaned against the wall. She slid down the wall and brought her knees up to her before hiding her face. I crouched down and sat next to her.

"It wasn't always like this," she confessed to me.

"Oh.. really?" I responded.

I didn't know Soomin would open up to me about herself. I've never had a proper conversation with her before and whenever I looked her way I would get all shy. But right now it was different. I didn't feel shy. Instead I felt the need to listen to her and understand her a bit more.

She lifted her head high enough for her to see the ground, "I damaged my retina when I was younger."

"Oh," was all I could say.

"I wasn't always like this, studious I mean," she laughed a little and smiled but I could see tears forming in her eyes.

"It's not bad to be studious though," I said.

"But if I said I used to love running around and being sporty, people won't believe me," she bit her lip to stop herself from crying.

I raised my hand up and was about to place it onto her shoulder when I decided not to. I retracted my hand and let it drop back down.

"Before I turned twelve, my eyesight was the same as everyone else's. I could see the rainbow clearly and every other colour was also visible. But then that day.. it changed everything," a sob escaped from her and she covered her mouth with both hands to stop the rest.

For some reason my heart was aching a little at the sight of her trying so hard to stop her own cries. This time I placed my hand on her shoulder and she turned to face me.

"If it's too much for you to tell me, you don't have to," I spoke gently before giving her a reassuring smile.

She looked away from me, "It's.. It's alright."

I patted her shoulder once before taking my hand away.

"We were playing sports for school and I had no idea how this happened but someone accidentally threw sticks towards my face. It was an accident and one of the sticks was small and kind of sharp and it damaged my right eye retina."

"Then your left eye?" I asked her before I could stop myself, "I mean if you don't wish to tell me I understand."

I mentally slapped myself and hoped that Soomin wouldn't find me too nosy.

She shook her head and continued, "After the doctors told me that I won't be able to see colour in one eye and it could create a funny vision for me if my left eye could still see colour I had the option of whether I wanted surgery or not for my right eye. However they told me it was only a 35% chance that the surgery would succeed and sit could also result in a blind eye. So in the end I chose to remove my other retina."

I blinked a few times and tried to process all the information she just gave me. I looked up to her and saw a tear roll down from her right eye. She didn't seem to realise and continued to stare off into the space.

"You've been through a lot Soomin-ssi," I decided to say after some time of consideration.

She snapped out of her trance and turned her head towards me. She half smiled and shook her head.