Apollo’s Heart

Chapter 103

You don’t know. You probably won’t know … What the lost memories mean to me and what pain it is. A precious person died in front of me. I don’t know about anything else, but I can’t forget that death. If I want to live properly in the future.

Only now did he seem to understand the meaning of those words. That Yuri was looking for the memories in order to live.

“One thing to note is that if you are not prepared enough and provoke or forcibly bring out “trauma”, the patient will experience the pain vividly. Such stimulation is called ‘trigger’. It must be a familiar word to Mr. Tae-jun Seo.”

Ripped out of his musing at the words, he hurriedly mumbled: “A trigger … I see.”

“That’s right, trigger. The moment the trigger is pulled it incites extreme actions like self-harm or suicide. This is a sort of defense mechanism to protect themselves.” He let his words sink before he added. “Is the patient you are bringing in this condition as well?”

Instead of answering, Tae-jun exhaled a short breath. He was told there had been habitual attempts of suicide … Was it because of this?

That seemed to have been a sufficient answer to Woo-kyung. Their consultation ended there. He said he would review the medical records carefully and then contact him again.

Upon leaving the clinic, Tae-jun clenched the centre of his brows as he got into the car Jin-wook was waiting in. It was hot. The fact that he had pushed Yuri made him see things blurrily. He remembered the words that Wook-yung had reiterated.

Do not force it. Saying something, explaining something, this doesn’t work. Probably there is no language for it even in the patient. Facing trauma without feeling calm is only an unnecessary stimulus. You must understand and embrace it so that the patient can open their mind naturally. Wait for them to open their mind naturally, huh.

Even when he’d first met Yuri, Tae-jun did anything but that. Plagued but the obsession to have her by hook or crook, he had shackled her to him through a ‘contract’. Time and again, he had driven her to the peak of her frenzy, instead of empathizing he had agonized her further and further. He clenched his hands tightly, heaving deeply as he did.

Suddenly, a few long forsaken words came to his mind, the last words of his father before he abandoned him.

Keep in mind this one thing: Everything in the world flows in order. Whether it’s money, work, or a person’s heart, everything has its own order and reason. If you break it, you may be comfortable for a moment, but the cost will surely get back at you.

A man- stubborn, sweet, who had persistently loved one woman was none other than his father. He was worried about the blind and coercive and obstinate personality of his young son, who was a spitting image of his grandfather.

“Is this the price~” Tae-jun mumbled bitterly and closed his eyes.

Time follows its own rhythm. Two days had passed as he realized the sensation that one minute and one second fell into it like grains of sand in an hourglass. But Yuri was still unconscious.

After work, Tae-jun, who had been looking at her frail face for a long time, got up. Jin-wook had said that he was planning to meet the manager of the former Hotel Jinseong and retrieve the recording he had.

The house was as it was on the morning of Yuri’s “accident”. Tae-jun headed to her room to grab her cell phone. It took him a while to find the phone was lying under the side table with a dead battery.

He went to the library to fetch a battery charger. He had to find her memory. The best way was for her to find the memories on her own, but it’s not his way to just sit still and wait around. And he didn’t want to go through the experience of holding the body of a cold, drooping Yuri again. He needed to know. What pulled the ‘trigger’ of Yuri?!

He connected the battery to the cell phone and turned it on. There was only one person who could educate him of her condition right now: Roy Jean.

Tae-jun found the name and pressed the call button. The man was said to be still staying in Japan. The call was answered quite quickly, the tone short nevertheless it was a good low-pitched voice.

– “Yuri.”

Could it be that the man sounded strangely sweet because he was distorted right now?

“I am not Yuri. Roy Jean, is that you?” Tae-jun urgently asked from the other side of the phone if he was embarrassed by an unexpected male voice.

“I… … .”

What was his relationship to Yuri? Tae-jun pondered for a moment. What relationship should he say to make him give him the information he wanted without alerting him? However, Roy didn’t wait for an answer.

“Yuri is ill-disposed to speak right now.”

His response was astounding when he said she was unable to speak.

Drug Intoxication. To think that that was the first thing he would say at the mere mention that she wasn’t able to speak right now, Tae-jun was convinced that his conjecture had hit the bull’s eye.

This man was an important “key” to solving Yuri’s condition.

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