Chapter 6
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“Ryan”

 

“Ryan” or so this is the name he was called by the book guy starts driving again. This time he doesn’t talk all that much. It doesn’t seem like he wants to acknowledge my existence every time we get into a car.

I don’t mind cause I don’t have to make an effort of creating some kind of small talk. Right now, it feels like a one-sided relationship. He drags me around. I don’t appreciate that so I might as well ignore him.

The car stops somewhere in a busy area. He gets out of the car but doesn’t say anything to me. He doesn’t turn off the car engine either. I become confused since I am not sure whether I need to stay put or follow him.

I decided to stay in the car because I don’t think my conscience will allow me to leave a running car like that. I would steal this car but I have never driven a car before. I sigh as I can feel tired from going around places today without resting properly.

Now, I don’t even want to go anywhere. I would like to go home and rest. The best thing about my current life is definitely, the big comfortable bed inside the bedroom and the privacy that comes with that.

I start to doze off as it feels like a long while that he has disappeared but before I manage to fall into a deep sleep, someone slammed the door.

I become startled and notices he is back and in his hand is a drink. He hands it over to me and I look at him suspiciously. He looks like he’s trying to hold back from rolling his eyes.

“Take it,”

“What for?” I didn’t bother reaching out to it because I am scared by his action right now. The heck is he trying to do?

“Just take it,” He didn’t wait for me to reach out and put it on my lap.

I yelp before picking it up quickly as the spot where he places the drink is now wet. Rude.

“What is this anyway?” I ask while holding the cup and the straw wrapped in paper plastic. 

“Pearl milk tea. Drink it,”

He doesn’t talk anymore and starts driving away. I wonder if there is something wrong with his head. I look at the sealed cup drink that has something round and black at the bottom of it.

Seeing that it is sealed, I am going to assume it is safe to drink but I don’t feel like drinking. At least not until I know I am in a safe space. He doesn’t seem to care that I am not drinking it right away.

On another note, he doesn’t take me anywhere else but straight home. This means our ‘field trip’ is over I guess. I am so glad because I am tired and all I want to do is rest. The trip to all these different places is enough for me for the day.

It appears that our arrival has alerted the people inside the house. Abby comes storming out to the porch. She seems to be shocked to see the bright red sports car. Her facial expression changes in the next second into a frown while she moves to approach the car.

Ryan did not wait inside the car as if he knew Abby would not let him leave without an explanation.

“Where did you take him?” Abby has her hand crossed while talking to him.

Despite being the shortest among the three of us, she has the bigger momentum and it makes me have the illusion that she is taller instead.

He pointed at the drink in my hand and said, “Tea,” without further explanation.

Abby immediately looks at the tea strangely and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I try not to move as much and keep the cup of tea in the same position as I was holding it.

Abby starts to approach him with a menacing look.

“I told you to stay away from him,”

Ryan did not step forward but instead just respond carelessly, “Whatever,”

He did not say anything more. He enters his car and starts to drive away without giving us another glance.

Abby turns to me without much change of expression.

“You,” I gulped at her words.

“Why didn’t you answer your phone?!”

I became surprised before rummaging my school bag which luckily I did not forget in his car. I found my phone at the bottom of the bag but it was not responsive. I hear Abby sighs loudly next to my ears as she looks at the blacked-out phone in my hand.

“Next time charge your phone properly. Do you know how worried I was when I heard someone tell me you were taken away from school?” This time she did not raise her voice but it still made me wince.

I didn’t mean to make her angry.

 

The two of us started walking back to the house. Well, more of Abby leads and I follow. The two of us ended up in my bedroom without any disturbance. Abby sits on the sofa and I sit across from her because I didn’t know how else to approach the current situation.

From the moment she sat down, her gaze never left my body but neither of us spoke so the air felt stiff. It wasn’t until she pointed at my drink and said, “Drink it. Won’t taste good if it’s left too long and no longer cold,”

I nod at her and automatically reacts to what she says. I plunged the straw into the cup and started sipping on it. Immediately my eyes light up because it tastes quite decent. I didn’t have any expectations, but this is not bad.

I notice Abby’s frown slowly turns into a soft smile when she sees me enjoying my drink.

“I know… you don’t remember…,” Abby speaks in a strangely low voice. I have not heard her speak like this since I got discharged from the hospital. I didn’t speak and waited for her to continue.

“You don’t remember this but you got into a bad place because you were chasing his shadow. I don’t want you to chase after him anymore. He won’t look at you… he couldn’t… because he is chasing a shadow too…

I don’t want you to go down his road. It’s not safe…,” Her voice trails off as if she swallowed some of the words she couldn’t say. 

She covers her eyes with her palm, trying to hide away her tears. My heart hurt seeing her like this. Though I have only known her for a few days, I can feel her concern towards me.

She would probably be sadder if she finds out that I am not the person she is trying to protect. That person has long gone away and even I don’t know where he went but I hope I could at least ease her worry. Even if it’s temporary, his family doesn’t deserve this pain.

“I’m sorry,” After all the words I search for in my limited vocabulary, this is all I could say. I know it will not make anything better but I hope it can give her a bit of comfort.

Abby covers her face using her hair as she wipes her eyes before lifting her head to look at me. The rims of her eyes are red but she still puts on a smile to me.

“I should go now,” Abby got off the sofa but paused because she remembered something.

“Ah, before I forget, Samuel asked you to do these questions. He said it’s an open book so you can take your time to do it but make sure it’s completed by this weekend,”

She hands out a stack of papers to me. I confusedly held the papers and that made her laugh a little.

“I asked him to tutor you and help you with your student entrepreneurship curricular. I hope this will help you to continue your studies after we formally graduate school,”

I nod at her as agreement. Abby walks aways soon after and leaves me alone in my room.

I look at these papers and decide to put it in my bag and do it at school. It’s a school night either way and it’s not like we have any classes. I can take my time in the library to do these tests.

I turn to look at my desk on the opposite side of the room. I realised that I barely use the space so it is left spotlessly clean. Aside from the pictures of Abby and him pasted on the wall, there are no other decorations.

I look at the black book on the table. Something tells me to open it up to the page where the photo I once saw sticking out from this book. I have a bad premonition because the foggy memory is starting to clear up.

The moment I open the book to the page of the photo, his face appears and my mind makes an instant connection. His golden hair shining in the sunlight. His serious face gives off a different kind of feeling from the person I met today. The picture makes him feel more of a quiet serious man but I guess the real him wasn’t it.

I feel that there is no need to guess who this man is in this body any more. Abby and this picture already answered the question.

When I remember all that has happened today, one thing sticks to my mind. He was able to drag me around and I don’t feel immediate repulse. I am not sure if it’s because of this body or if it's him that is different.

Should I find out or should I stay away?

Such questions maybe only time will tell. 

Right now, it doesn’t seem like Abby or Ryan wants us to get closer. I still have other things to figure out. This shouldn’t be a priority.

 

---

 

“I’ve graded all your papers. You don’t have an issue with most subjects as you can grasp their basics. However, all your foreign language skills seem to be close to non-existing. I don’t blame you though. Nobody can choose what to remember and forget,”

Sam puts down all the papers he has graded and none of them has good marks.

Despite all the efforts I put in to answer his questions, I was barely able to complete the questions he gave me. I did get a little help from Elaine but of course, my foreign language skills would be close to non-existing because I never had any from the start. I was able to do most of these questions because I was taught to do the basics of all these subjects but that’s about it.

I am not sure if I should be ashamed because it does feel like I am underperforming.

“For most of your subjects, we can slowly increase the level of the difficulty depending on your progress. Your foreign language subjects, on the other hand, we might need to start from the beginning. I don’t want you to try and memorise the words but rather understand their meaning. We won’t try and learn all of them but let's focus one by one. It’s not as if you need to take a test on them unless you plan to be an interpreter,”

I nod as I listen to him and take notes. He starts to give some pointers for each subject. He didn’t give a whole lot of information to take in but just enough for me to understand certain things. If I want to know more I would ask him further or look it up when I’m home. 

I have always been interested in studying and I’ve been told that I am a fast learner. It doesn’t take me long to grasp how to use certain formulas. Although I still make mistakes but with Sam guiding me, it doesn’t feel too hard.

Time passes by without me noticing until Sam says that our session tutoring will end for the day.

“You two are working hard,” A familiar voice sounded near us and I am surprised to see the book guy is here.

“Eric, what brings you here?” Sam didn’t sound too surprised but there is a hint of curiosity in his voice when asking.

“Him,”

Eric’s straightforward answer surprised not only Sam but also me. 

Before Sam could ask a follow-up question, Eric has already taken a seat in front of me while observing every move I make. I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable under his gaze.

“Is something wrong?” I gather my courage to ask him.

Instead of Eric answering me, Sam replies, “You have to forgive him a little. He only gets like this when something catches his fancy. Eric, you need to tone it down a little. You’re making him uncomfortable,”

“Sorry,” Eric apologised while adjusting himself on the sofa but his eyes never changed its nature. 

“I just want to have a chat with him. Could you leave us for now?” His question is pointed to Sam.

Sam, who has his eyes on Eric, takes a short glance at me before sighing.

“If he doesn’t want to talk-,”

“I know. I won’t do anything that isn’t appropriate. If he doesn’t want to respond, that’s fine by me,” Sam nods at his response and tells me that he will be in the next room.

It is to show that if I need anything or I want to end the conversation short, I can always just call out for him. I agree although it does feel like I was the passive party who did not have a choice in this matter. However, I could tell he doesn’t mean any harm to me as his eyes show pure curiosity and nothing more.

“Let me reintroduce myself. I am Eric and I have just completed my medical degree,”

Honestly, I am not surprised that he would have such a background. The books he was reading were medical-related too.

“You don’t seem surprised. Interesting. How much do you remember?”

I shake my head as an answer.

He hums as an acknowledgment but doesn’t give me further questions because his attention falls on my papers.

“May I?” His hands gesture at the graded question papers. I give him my approval and immediately he takes them and starts flipping them one by one. He put some of them back on the table as if he found something he is very interested in one of the papers.

After a while, he puts down the rest of the papers in his hands and I realise that those are my language papers.

“Amnesia often does not lead to the degradation of the ability to understand languages they have previously learnt. There are cases where a person who suffers from amnesia forgets how to speak his native language but not their second. You, on the other hand, don't seem to be doing well with your second language skills,”

I decided that it is better not to give any explanation as that information is new to me. I am wondering to myself whether or not I have exposed myself.

Silence starts to dominate the room for quite some time before Eric breaks it.

“You know what, curiosity kills the cat. Although I am interested to know, I am sure there is another person that is far more curious than me that will dig you harder. Though knowledge is a powerful thing, sometimes some things should be left unknown,”

He got up from his seat after pulling his phone out. His attention is on his phone as he walks towards the exit. I am sitting them feeling a little stupid because I don’t know what just happened. I am extremely confused.

Eric stopped in front of the door before leaving me with these words, “Just be careful with Ryan,”

I spaced out trying to understand these people and their motives but I have too little information to understand any of this. It is only when Sam snaps me out of it that I came back to reality. When he asked me when Eric left, that’s when I realised that quite some time had passed.

Since it was already late, I said my goodbye to Sam after packing my things and headed home since the car was already waiting for me.

On my way home, I thought back to the day when Ryan took me to meet Eric and up until what happened earlier.

Did Ryan take me to see Eric because he has a medical degree? I already know that Ryan doesn’t believe in my amnesia story but he hasn’t appeared since then. It doesn’t seem like he would be bothering me again any time soon but what is the purpose for Eric’s actions today?

Did he come to ask these questions to me because of Ryan or for himself?

I am not sure what he wants from me but he did say he is backing off. I hope he stays true to his words. Aside from his weird attitude but the advice he gives is probably something I need to listen to. He is the second person that tells me to be careful with Ryan.

Why does it seem everything is revolving Ryan?

Who is he?

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