Forget-me-not

Cynthia

"And this will be your room!" Flora grinned and pushed open a wooden door. 

The room was a simple square painted lavender. A closet sat in the middle of one side of the wall. A pair of wooden sliding doors kept the interior hidden. A twin sized bed was pushed into the corner of the room and a small nightstand was set up beside it. 

The blinds of a large rectangular window were open above it. Tendrils of warm yellow light slipped into the room and lit it up. Cynthia took in everything inside the room in silence. After being released from the hospital, Flora announced she'd be moving in with her until she recovered. 

The grayed hardwood flooring was cold beneath her socked feet. Flora led her inside, so she could look around better. A matching lavender comforter was slung over the bed. Cynthia soaked it up with wide eyes. "So this is going to be my room?" 

"Yeah, do you like it?" 

"It's nice." 

"I'm sure you'll like it more once you unpack your stuff. There's only one bathroom and that's the room we passed out in the hallway. This apartment is pretty nice for only having two bedrooms. The landlord was pretty understanding of the situation." 

"That was nice of him." 

"He's pretty great. So what do you want to do now? We can hang out if you want to. We can talk or you can ask questions or we could g-" 

"Actually, I think I just want to be alone for a while." 

"Oh, yeah, I guess you can do that too." Disappointment laced Flora's voice. "If you need something, I'll be across the hallway in my room. If it's an emergency, just shout." 

Cynthia nodded and her eyes met Flora's. Flora let out a sigh and shut the door to her room leaving Cynthia alone. Being left alone, she began to inspect the room in further detail. 

She opened the closet to reveal it being empty. There was a shelf aligning the top that could be used to place items. A simple wooden rack sat beneath it. The rest of the space was empty. After shutting it, Cynthia peered through the blinds. 

Flora's apartment was located on the fifth floor of an apartment complex building. Apparently, Cynthia used to live in her own apartment. However, since the car crash happened and Cynthia had no previous memory, she couldn't be left on her own. 

Flora went back to her old apartment and packed a bunch of stuff up when Cynthia was still at the hospital. At least, that's what Cynthia was told. She didn't remember her old apartment and she didn't even know where it was located. 

The ride home from the hospital was disorienting and dizzying. A plethora of cars and multitudes of different roads. Compared to the dull hospital walls, the colors outside were so bright. The sky was gray, but the businesses and the people were not. Outside it was cold and yet the air was lighter. 

To be outside was to be free and it meant not being cooped up and caged like a lab rat. The bitter wind felt good nipping against her cheeks. She relished the inhale of fresh oxygen that burned her lungs with the outdoor chill. The wind pushed her hair back behind her head. 

Has winter always been her favorite season? Did she prefer warm or cooler weather? She didn't know and she could have asked Flora, but she didn't want to. She wanted to discover things about herself. Relying on someone to tell you about yourself wasn't the same as actually experiencing it. 

She pushed the blinds open further and glanced down below. A sidewalk sat beneath the building. Parking was located behind. The location of the building was on the edge of downtown Seoul. Traffic was backed up at this time in the late afternoon. 

She pulled her fingers from the blinds and dropped onto the bed. Her eyes shut and she let her body relax. It was nice to relax without the constant mechanical beeping of machines or the constant questions from the nurses and doctor. Right now, she felt the most normal she had since she woke up. 

The past two weeks had been a haze. She still struggled to remember everything that happened at the hospital. The majority of the cuts on her hands were beginning to fade now. The scrapes and cuts around her head were still healing. The angry purple rings around her eyes reduced to a yellowed brown. The doctor said they appeared due to the harsh impact her head received. 

The puffed up side of her face had disappeared and went back to normal size. Bruises were steadily healing and so was her head. Apparently, the reason for her headaches was due to a concussion. It was impossible to escape the blunt impact she experienced without having one. 

She let her eyes shut and tried to shut everything out. Traffic crawled outside the window. Faint soft music drifted into her room from across the hallway. Flora must have been playing something. 

It didn't take long for exhaustion to catch up and lull her to sleep.