A Fresh Start

Relearning

Jacky's POV

I woke up in a strange girl's arms, wondering who I was and where I was. I tried my best to remember how I got there but everything before that moment was a blank spot. I couldn't even remember my own name. "Who are you? Where am I? And most importantly, who am I?" I asked the girl. I looked around to see that we were under the shade of a tree on a bustling campus before focusing my attention back on the girl. The girl looked shocked but quickly regained her composure and answered, "I am Hayeon, your unnie. You are Jacqueline Jeon, but most people call you Jacky. We were here for freshman orientation at UIC. You fainted because of the hot weather and hit your head, so I brought you into the shade." I looked at her surprised and asked, "What's an unnie?" Her jaw dropped and she replied, "What do you mean what's an unnie? That means older sister. Don't tell me you don't know how to speak korean anymore!" "I spoke Korean?" I asked her. "Yes! We lived in korea until a year ago. You must have hit your head pretty hard if you forgot that." she exclaimed. "Let's head home before eomma worries about us."

I couldn't believe that I had somehow completely forgotten how to speak a language, but followed her anyway. Nothing was familiar and I wouldn't be able to find anything out without her anyway. When we got home, she immediately ushered me up to her room which we apparently shared and told me to sleep before heading back downstairs to tell out parents what had happened. Being my curious self, I decided to ignore her request and instead looked around our room expecting to find some clues of who I was. I found one picture of my blonde self with Hayeon and our parents. In the picture, I was about five and in some small Korean village. I guessed that I must have been adopted when I was young since Hayeon and my parents are Korean.

A little while later, I heard my sister coming up the stairs, so I quickly dove onto the bottom bunk to avoid being caught snooping. My sister walked in a moment later, smiled, and said, "See, you already knew which bed was yours. I brought a photo album to see if that will help you remember stuff." We looked at the photo album and I was surprised to see that the little blonde girl was indeed in all of the pictures. It was surprising but must have been the truth. It still didn't explain how I had totally forgotten a language though, but hopefully I would relearn it quickly. I then found out more about her and about what I had liked. It surprised me the most to learn that Hayeon unnie had been in a kpop group called Global Icon. We spent the rest of the time listening to their kpop songs until eomma called us downstairs for dinner.

She started saying something in Korean until she noticed how immensely confused I looked. She then asked, "Don't tell me you forgot everything including your Korean?" When she saw me nod she immediately decided to call a korean tutor who would help me relearn the language starting the next day. We all sat down and immediately dug in afterwards. I took one bite and my mouth exploded with a mouthwatering flavor. I nudged my sister, and asked, "What's this? I think this is my new favorite meal." Hayeon replied, "Not surprising, since this was also your favorite meal before you lost your memory. It's Japchae by the way." Her appa and eomma suggested that they go to the mall the next day to look for new clothes for school. I wondered what major I had actually signed up for but didn't want to seem stupid, so I just stayed quiet and headed to bed wondering when I was going to regain my past.

The next morning, I was already up at 6 am and shook Hayeon awake. The first thing she muttered was, "You used to be the one that slept late. What's up?" "We should exercise first before we head to the mall," I replied. "Can I borrow a sport bra and shorts from you?" She rolled the other way and quickly said sure in the hopes that I would let her sleep some more, but she should have known that that was impossible if I was excited about something. I jumped on her and dragged her from her bed. She fell on the floor and stood up to glare at me before getting her sport bra and shorts and joining me at the door. We jogged to the campus rec center and started a lot of different kinds of exercise which she all beat me in. I vowed to beat her the next time. We then went to get a kimchi sandwich and red bean bubble tea for me and a bulgogi sandwich for her with a taro bubble tea. She said that it used to be my favorite and I confirmed that it still was. We then headed to the mall to see if I still had the same taste in clothes as well. I was about to buy only tshirts and jeans, but she said that I used to be outgoing, athletic, smart, and sarcastic, so instead I went with multiple pairs of leather pants and shorts along with some snapbacks. I thought that maybe the outfit would make me more outgoing. We then decided to head home and I finally found out what major I was actually doing; theater. Not something that I had expected, but hopefully something I would enjoy.

When we got home, it seemed like Christmas had come early this year. Our parents were sitting at the table with gifts piled high at our chairs. We exclaimed at the same time, "What's the occasion?" They replied that they felt that these things would be useful for college and that they could afford to splurge a little since we had both gotten the regents scholarship. We opened the gifts to find that we had both gotten smartphones, computers, and a tablet to share. We couldn't believe our eyes and promised that we'd do everything in our power to not disappoint them. They then said that we could start by making sure to put school first Before we knew it we would have to go to school and there was still plenty of preparation.