Golden Time

Suhyuk’s eyes opened suddenly. At the same time, a dazzling fluorescent light hit his cornea. With a deep frown, he suddenly raised his upper body.

No, he just barely made it up, but soon after collapsed in his bed helplessly.

‘Were my muscles siphoned from my body?’

It was the first thought that came to his mind after Suhyuk opened his eyes.

He could not feel any strength in his body.

At that moment, he felt a sharp pain in his left arm. He naturally gazed toward it.

There was a Ringer solution (IV fluid) stuck in his boney arm.

He rolled his eyes quickly and looked around.

As he expected, the place seemed to be a hospital.

‘By the way, who am I?’

All his memories were lost. There was nothing he could think of.

Barely moving his spiritless body, Suhyuk began to check his condition.

It’s normal, normal, normal.

There were no other unusual symptoms on his body, except for the missing muscles caused by his laying in bed for a long period of time.

“Vitamin, amino …”

Suhyuk muttered, checking various kinds of label attached to the Ringer solution.

All were IV fluids to inject nutrients into the body. That made sense as he could not eat food with his mouth.

How long had he been lying on the bed? It’s been quite a long time. His body proved it.

For example, his arms looked skinny like crumbly trunks, and he lost his muscles.

He felt very languid and tired. He needed absolute rest.

Suhyuk once again lay in bed in a relaxed posture. Eyes closed, he was absorbed in thought. Did the surgery by the masked man go well?

‘Who the hell did crazy things like opening up the brains of a normal person?’

Eyes closed, Suhyuk touched his head once again.

He found no scar there. ‘The masked man… Was it all a dream?’

It was so vivid in his memory as if he could touch it.

Suhyuk’s thinking did not last long. And he could now draw a conclusion.

It was a dream. ‘What happened? What the hell was going on?’

‘And I …’ In just a moment he fell quietly into sleep.

“This patient was brought to the emergency room from a cardiac arrest. By performing CPR and injecting epinephrine into his heart, we could save his heart but he could not wake up because he was in a coma. And there was no wound in his body, including his head. Does anybody want to present their opinion?”

Suhyuk was forced to wake up from the noise around him.

He slowly lifted his heavy eyebrows.

Those wearing white gowns came into his vision, along with their startled look.

“Professor, the patient has awakened!”

The eyes of the interns checking Suhyuk’s condition while making their last round, opened wide. They were not the only ones. Even the professor who confirmed Suhyuk’s condition was equally dumbfounded. The patient who rushed into the hospital emergency room failed to wake up after he had fallen into a coma.

He was literally a person in vegetative state.

Obviously everybody was surprised to find out that the patient, who had been lying in bed like a dead man for three months, woke up like a miracle.

Suhyuk gathered up his uncomfortable upper body barely from his bed and sat down, leaning against the bed.

“I think I have befallen with amnesia.”

The professor blinked his eyes. Suhyuk came to his senses suddenly, and now he was saying he was befallen with amnesia. He might be very confused, but he looked calm and composed on the contrary. The professor calmed his mind, and asked,

“You got into a car accident, and were carried into the emergency room. Don’t you remember anything? Can you recall your name?”

Suhyuk shook his head. He could not recall any single name.

The professor showed him a chart and showed all the names there. Suhyuk read and said with muttering.

“Lee Suhyuk.”

“Good. that’s your name. Can you recall it again next time?”

“Yes, I do not think I’m befallen with anterograde amnesia,” Suhyuk said.

As he remembered he had an IV fluid in his arm, it seemed clear that he did not have anterograde amnesia.

Anterograde amnesia refers to a symptom that does not translate short-term memory into long-term memory. In other words, you can not easily remember what you did a while ago if you have that symptom.

Obviously his symptom was not what he was worried about.

“Mr. Kim, please contact Lee Suhyuk’s guardians.”

A professor, who made rounds with interns, gazed at Suhyuk again, saying,

“I guess you must studied medical science a lot?”

The professor, saying softly to Suhyuk, was startled in his heart. Here was a 16 year old child, who just woke up from a vegetative state, and who now could make a diagnosis by himself!

His behavior seems to be getting more and more exciting.

Now, he has a complete mastery of the types of amnesia.

“How long was I lying here for?” Suhyuk asked.

“For three months,” replied the professor.

“Without any consciousness?”

The professor slowly nodded his head and this time, Suhyuk was surprised.

That was a state of persistent vegetation beyond a coma.

Certain medical death. Nonetheless he woke up?

He was lucky. No, that word is not enough to express such a situation. In this case, miracle was the right expression. What kind of traffic accident was it? It must have been a big accident. Fortunately, his limbs are still okay, and then he could guess the name of the pathology that drove him into the vegetative state.

“Did I have a cardiac arrest?”