To Me, Who Doesn’t Love You

I unconsciously moved closer and gently touched the frowning child’s face. It must have been hanging precariously on the nail because it slipped down with a clattering sound as the frame hit the wall.Gosh.I almost thought I’d broken someone else’s picture frame. After securing the frame back in place, I noticed something stacked on the veranda through the gap in the curtains.Why is there so much stuff here?Pushing the curtain aside, I stepped onto the veranda and found unused furniture and miscellaneous items piled up. Next to them was a storage cabinet, seemingly meant for extra storage space. Although I didn’t expect to regain any memories from looking around, I felt compelled to see what was there since I was already there.I wondered if there were more photo frames stacked up here. My curiosity turned to surprise when I saw what was inside the slightly open storage cabinet.So this is where it was.It was an item I had been wondering about ever since I arrived at the house yesterday. It was a wedding photo of me and Yeonseo, now covered in dust, unlike the neatly maintained photo frames inside the room.Looking at the picture, I couldn’t help but think, “Who would believe we’re in love by looking at this?” Even if we had taken separate photos and combined them, they wouldn’t look this awkward.Usually, in wedding photos, even if the couple isn’t thrilled about the marriage, they at least pretend to be happy. But this photo looked like it was taken in the middle of a huge argument just minutes before, with no way to reschedule the shoot.This must have been embarrassing for the photographer.In the photo, I was openly looking away from Yeonseo. Yeonseo, on the other hand, was quietly staring at the floor, avoiding eye contact with me. If someone tried to frame it as an artistic choice, maybe it could pass, but it seemed more like forced composure.If it were genuine, we should at least be standing closer.The hypothesis that “Jo Yeonseo doesn’t hate me” which I had been sure of based on his brief reactions last night, started to waver precariously.Was it a marriage neither of us wanted, but we pity each other enough to show some sympathy?I closed the storage cabinet door, feeling like I had opened Pandora’s box. Despite having to move forward since I had survived, the thought of not knowing anything about the past or future made my mind restless.I shouldn’t be thinking about anything right now.Returning to the sofa, I leaned back and closed my eyes, recalling the voice of the resident who recognized me at the mart. Even with a cap pulled low over my face, hoping to avoid recognition, it wasn’t enough to hide my features.Oh my, you look so stern on TV, but seeing you here, you look so approachable.Being told that the current me looked friendlier than the TV personality Lee Suhan didn’t feel like a compliment. Still, I had enough sense to smile lightly and thank her.Taeoh, whom I met at the hospital, had said something similar. People who had never met the judge and entrepreneur Lee Suhan in person all seemed to say the same thing. I wondered how those who had been around me felt. One face came to mind immediately.Should I ask him what he thinks?After seeing him in the car looking as though he’d just lost someone, I hesitated. Just because I managed to break the ice once, was I getting too confident? I scolded myself, running my hand through my hair.But if we aren’t lovers, and it’s not a situation where we need to hide a crime, why would he come to see me every night? Whether that gaze was out of concern or for confirmation, I wouldn’t get an answer even if I asked.After a light dinner with some of the instant food I bought, I cleaned up the trash and found that it was already dark outside. It was strange how quickly time could pass even when doing nothing. I sighed as I leaned on the tidied-up dining table.Beep.I heard the short beep of the door lock opening.“Ah.”Despite it being almost spring, Jo Yeonseo, in a thin coat buttoned up to the top, took a step back when he saw me. Then he closed the door and I heard the lock beep again as it secured.“…?”Why wasn’t he coming in? I looked at the entrance in confusion, and shortly after, I heard the sound of the keypad being pressed very slowly, almost like an eagle’s hunt-and-peck method.Beep. The lock released again, and the front door opened.“…….”Like a scared cat, he hugged the wall, avoiding my gaze as he quickly made his way to the master bedroom, not forgetting to give me a polite nod as he passed by. I watched him rush off without a word, left alone in the living room.“What was that?”What’s with the reaction? Why would someone act like that upon seeing me? I picked up the bag of bread I had placed on the table earlier and approached the master bedroom. If we’re living together but avoiding each other, then I had no choice but to use all means to find out what our relationship and history were. With a determined mindset, I knocked on the bedroom door.“Yeonseo, could you come out for a moment?”I couldn’t help but laugh at myself. The situation felt ridiculous, but if he was going to be like this, I had no choice.“…….”There was no response from inside, as if he hadn’t heard me or was pretending not to. I waited for a moment and then knocked on the door again, this time more firmly.“Yeonseo! Please come out for a moment!”My voice was loud enough to be hard to ignore unless he was wearing noise-canceling headphones. But still, there was no response.This is infuriating.Let’s see if you can still ignore me. Fueled by stubbornness, I knocked on the door even louder, almost like a debt collector.“Jo Yeonseo! Are you okay in there?”I shouted dramatically.“I’m worried because there’s no answer. Are you alright? Should I….”At my exaggerated yelling, there was a thud from inside, and he opened the door, looking flustered. Had he been washing his face? A towel was draped around his neck, and he was dressed in loose-fitting loungewear. Water droplets trickled down from his face to his neck.“…Yes?”Seeing him startled, I felt oddly satisfied. His flushed cheeks made him look even more boyish. Smiling lightly, I showed him what I had in my hand.“I went out earlier and used the card. The transaction alert probably went to you, right? I found a nice bakery nearby and bought some extra bread.”Then, he looked down at me with wet eyes, as if wondering what it had to do with him. I didn’t know what he was thinking, but he looked a little sad and maybe a little happy. It wasn’t unpleasant that I was the one hanging at the end of his unreadable gaze.“It seems like a bit too much for me to eat alone. Have some with me. If you don’t want to eat now, you can take it to the office and eat it there.”“……”Yeonseo’s gaze flicked between me and the bag of bread for a moment. Then, abruptly, he looked away, turning his head.“I’m fine.”It was a clear rejection. But I wasn’t planning to back down that easily.“No, because I’m not fine.”He seemed startled by my unexpected response, his shoulders jerking as he looked at me briefly. Just as I had been bewildered a moment ago, wondering what he was thinking, he seemed at a loss for words, his mind going blank at my insistence. I gripped the door handle with one hand to keep it from closing and pressed on.“I bought too much, and I can’t eat it all by myself. They say it’s really delicious, so it would be a waste to throw it away, right? So think of it as sharing the burden and help me eat some.”When I handed him the fancy-named breads like Kouign-Amann and Mont Blanc, he hurriedly took them, unable to let them fall to the floor.“I picked only the ones labeled ‘Best’. They sell out if you go late, so you can’t get them then. See you tomorrow.”Then, as if I had finished everything I had to say, I quickly closed the door, and no sound came from inside. Just before the door closed, his eyes, wide like a startled rabbit, lingered in my mind. Despite his tall, sophisticated, urban-actor-like appearance, his timid behavior struck me as cute.After forcibly sharing the bread and some time had passed, I could hear the rustling sound of individually wrapped plastic being opened and bread being eaten from inside. It was hard not to laugh out loud.I returned to my bedroom with a silly smile and organized my thoughts for the day.First, it seems unlikely that Jo Yeonseo and I got married out of genuine love for each other.Second, while Jo Yeonseo’s childhood items and records are abundant in the house, I can’t find anything from my own childhood.Third, it seems certain that Jo Yeonseo doesn’t dislike me.When I thought of the last thing, I immediately shook my head.Fourth, Jo Yeonseo is cute.‘No, that’s too premature.’There were many things I wanted to ask Yeonseo, but at the rate we were communicating, it would probably take another month to get a clear answer.‘Should I gather my questions and ask them all at once?’Thinking about how he quickly disappears during the weekdays using work as an excuse and locks himself up even after getting home, I realized there was another way.Surprisingly, in the modern world, there is a marvelous invention called the mobile phone, which allows people to communicate even when they are far apart.‘Why didn’t I think of that?’Since I hadn’t received any messages, my phone was just an internet device, a YouTube player, and a colorful calendar. The only contacts saved on my messenger app were Yeonseo and Taeoh. Occasionally, I’d check Taeoh’s profile when he updated his picture with a new one of his child, but I hardly used the messenger otherwise.I knew it would be funny to contact someone in the same house via messenger, but it seemed better than protesting in front of his door, so I opened the messenger app.[Sorry, but do you know any contacts saved on my original phone number?] 10:11 PMIf it’s difficult to reveal my memory loss to my colleagues due to business reasons, it should be fine with friends, right? Unless all my friends were the kind who would gossip about others’ misfortunes. After asking just in case, I saw the message had been read shortly after.‘What’s he going to say…’Surely, I must have a few personal contacts. There must be family too. Suddenly, I remembered that my profile didn’t indicate any family members, including siblings or parents, and clicked my tongue. Considering how long I had been hospitalized, my parents should have visited. While waiting for Yeonseo’s reply, I decided to check my family registration certificate on my laptop, only to be met with an unexpected result.No siblings. Place of birth: Seoul. Both my father and mother were listed as deceased.‘No way…’It wasn’t that they didn’t come, they couldn’t. Though it was shocking, the bigger shock of losing my memory overshadowed it. It became clear that apart from my husband, no one else would visit me.At work, they had only informed them that the injuries from an accident were too severe to accept visitors and that it would be difficult for me to work until I recovered, to avoid any potential stock price issues caused by the absence of a key figure. Hence, my colleagues must have been worried but didn’t visit, wondering how severe the injuries were.Given the character portrayed by the entrepreneur Lee Suhan on TV, it seemed no one would have wanted to visit anyway. Since I didn’t know how I had treated my colleagues, I kept my mouth shut. Around that time, I received a message from Yeonseo.[I don’t know any of your personal acquaintances.] 10:23 PM[If you want to discuss work-related matters, you can contact this person.] 10:24 PM[For security reasons, the situation was explained, and they are aware of your memory loss, so you don’t need to worry about that.] 10:26 PMA contact number was attached to the staggered messages.[STV PD Jo Eunah][010-XXXX-XXXX]STV? A quick search revealed that it was the broadcaster and producer of the program I had appeared on, Kitchen Player. When I looked through my work laptop earlier, I noticed files related to the planning of a follow-up program. It seemed they had to share the current situation due to my sudden departure.As for personal friends’ contacts, unless they were mutual acquaintances, it was natural for Yeonseo not to know them. This was enough information, so I quickly sent a thank-you message.[Thank you] 10:27 PM[(Emoticon)] 10:27 PMThen, I sent an emote of a raccoon-like character waving its hand. I thought I heard something fall in the master bedroom but ignored it and turned off the screen.Since it was late, I decided to sleep and contact them the next day. As soon as I lay down, I felt extremely tired. I hadn’t even done half of what others do in their daily lives, yet I was so exhausted that it felt urgent to regain my strength. I also needed to practice walking slowly to build up my leg strength. When was my rehab appointment on Thursday? As my consciousness blurred, various thoughts scattered in my mind.* * *That dawn, I had another dream of someone looking down at me while I was asleep. Even if I didn’t want to understand the nature of the slimy sound mixed with heavy breathing, I recognized it immediately.“Ha, ugh…”The moist noise of rubbing against wet flesh made my back tense. With flushed skin and breathing mixed with moans, someone was looking down at me as if they were piercing me. Even though being the object of someone’s lust while unconscious was not pleasant, the moment I subconsciously wished that ‘someone’ was a specific person, my lower abdomen tightened.‘Fuck…’Startled, I woke up abruptly to find it was still early dawn, and the door was, of course, locked.I stepped out into the living room, just in case, but no one was there. Beyond the firmly closed master bedroom door, the ‘someone’ from my dream was sleeping quietly. I almost grabbed the doorknob unconsciously but snapped out of it when I heard what sounded like a sleep-talking murmur.What would I do if it wasn’t just a dream? Feeling dejected, I returned to my room and collapsed onto the bed. The flushed face I barely glimpsed kept hovering before my eyes.‘He’s annoyingly handsome.’Was I dreaming like this because he was the only one beside me? Or was it a returning memory from our past as a married couple, rather than a fabricated scene? The moment I entertained this hopeful thought, my cheeks burned.‘What’s the point of this when he gets flustered even at a mere touch…’Sure, objectively speaking, he wasn’t young enough to be called a child, but considering his reactions so far, he might be so shocked by the fact that I imagined such scenes that he could faint. He was so startled just by me calling out, “Yeonseo.” I chuckled dryly and tried to have more wholesome thoughts as I closed my eyes. After envisioning clear valley streams and chirping birds in the great outdoors for about 10 minutes, I finally fell asleep again.Then, after barely three or four hours, I woke up in the morning. I got up earlier than the previous day and rummaged through the cupboard, finding a cup rice meal that I could heat up for breakfast. Naturally, Jo Yeonseo had already left for work early. After filling my stomach, I sent a text to the contact number I received last night, and about 30 minutes later, I got a reply.[If you’re free at lunch today, shall we meet and talk in person?] 9:57 AMI was just about to ask if she could spare some time for me. I immediately replied with an OK, but then I started to worry about how to get there. Before losing my memory, I was a TV personality, if not a celebrity, so I probably used my car instead of public transportation. Given my current state, I couldn’t trust myself not to get into an accident if I tried to drive.‘It doesn’t seem like I’ve forgotten how to drive…’I didn’t know what to take, and I hadn’t gotten a new car since scrapping the old one, so I didn’t even have a car to drive. In the end, I quietly called a taxi to go to the meeting place. Despite it being midday, the streets were packed with people.Looking back, it was natural for there to be a lot of people in the city center during lunchtime, but I had grown so used to the leisurely, almost emperor-like confinement lifestyle in the hospital that I was startled without realizing it.The place where the PD, whose contact Jo Yeonseo had given me, called me to meet was a quiet café near the broadcasting station’s headquarters. Actually, it seemed more like a restaurant that serves lunch along with dinner rather than a café, with about three groups quietly eating. It seemed like they had chosen a place with a calm atmosphere to have a conversation, considering the quietness relative to the establishment’s size.“Oh, over here.”As I awkwardly entered the place, looking around without knowing the other person’s face, a woman sitting in a secluded spot by the window raised her hand and greeted me.“Hello. Thank you for taking the time to meet me.”I politely bowed my head and pulled out the chair opposite her, and PD Cho’s eyes widened in surprise.“Oh….”At her blatant exclamation, I laughed awkwardly.“Do I look that strange? I’ve been hospitalized for a while, so I’m still not used to interacting with people.”As I made an excuse, PD Cho, realizing her faux pas, quickly covered her mouth and apologized.“No, I just thought your atmosphere has changed a lot. I’m sorry for being rude.”“No, it’s nothing like that.”“No, I’m just so straightforward that my thoughts show on my face. I’m sorry.”Disliking the continuation of awkward apologies, I changed the subject entirely.“Anyway, I’m just grateful you made the time to meet me today. Please don’t worry about it.”The conversation was cut off when the staff brought the menu, and after we each chose a dish for lunch, we found a moment to speak again.“Wow… it’s really amazing. I guess amnesia changes your tastes too?”At her ambiguous remark, I tilted my head unknowingly, and PD Cho laughed innocently as she explained.“You never ordered seafood at places like this before. You said you couldn’t eat it if it wasn’t prepared professionally because it tasted fishy.”I had chosen a dish with clams and seafood, thinking it looked safe, but it seemed it was a dish I would never have chosen before losing my memory. I responded nonchalantly.“You might as well think of me as a completely different person. I don’t remember anything about myself. I’m just a blank slate.”Just as I said, I didn’t know what I liked or disliked; I knew nothing about myself. The person in front of me probably knew better.“So, you really don’t remember anything? Not even general social knowledge?”Feeling her curiosity, I answered easily.“I can function normally in daily life. I know who the current president is, how much subway and bus fares are, and who is on the 50,000 won bill.”Showing my familiarity with such questions from countless hospital sessions, PD Cho laughed heartily.“Wow, if we met without me seeing your face, I wouldn’t recognize you. It’s like talking to a different person.”As the conversation circled back, I laughed and got to the point.“So, it would be great if you could tell me more details about who I was.”“Hmm… okay. I don’t know where to start…”PD Cho thought for a moment and then exclaimed briefly.“Oh right. Have you seen any videos of yourself? Like on Kitchen Player…”“Yes, I have.”“And interviews or articles?”“Yes.”Another short silence followed. PD Cho’s observing gaze was obvious, and I reflexively looked away but then met her gaze again with a smile.“Then you know what you were like, right? You were pretty much the same on TV. You knew you were the best, knew you were good at your job, and skillfully used the fact that no one could replace you, both in terms of work and generating buzz…”Though I had expected it, the blunt assessment still felt like a stab, making me sweat nervously, which made PD Cho laugh loudly like she was watching a comedy.“I hope you don’t refuse to work with me once your memory returns, just because I said this. Can I really say this?”Grabbing my stomach in pain from her ambiguous joke, I replied.“I asked you to tell me, so I won’t blame you for that.”“Anyway, you weren’t someone who would talk like this. You smiled in front of the camera but always frowned off-camera. There were staff members who thought it was a waste of a good face.”Blushing at the harsh words that were essentially gossip, I realized PD Cho’s eyes gleamed with interest at my reaction.“Have I been too harsh? But I liked how thorough you were when working. Not in a romantic sense, of course. You always delivered good ratings. Having someone who wasn’t afraid of being disliked made it easier for us to plan.”Not knowing what to say, I remained silent, and PD Cho took out a semi-transparent file from her shoulder bag and handed it to me. As I quietly accepted and opened it, I found several resumes clipped together.“I think that’s about all I can tell you as a colleague. This is the resume you submitted when proposing a recent project with us. You might already know most of it, but I thought it might help to see it neatly organized.”As I stared at the file in my hands, the server approached to deliver our meals.“Who ordered the cream risotto?”“Oh, that’s hers.”I quickly pointed to PD Cho and put the file aside. My heart raced at the unexpected gain. Like any other office worker, our lunch break was short, and PD Cho soon finished her meal, bowed, and left the restaurant. The resume was quite a solid gain for the cost of a few tens of thousands of won for lunch.All the way home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that people passing by were glancing at me. Only when I opened the front door did I finally relax.‘Like a different person.’It hadn’t been long since I woke up from a coma, yet everyone I met kept saying the same thing, and it gave me a headache. Could a person’s tastes, preferences, and personality really change just because they lose their memory? The pasta I had today wasn’t fishy at all; it was quite ordinary. Not exceptionally good, but not bad enough to complain about—just mediocre. Was it that my tastes changed due to the accident, or was it that I couldn’t discern flavors properly because of my memory loss? There was no concrete way to confirm.‘If I’m going to have useless thoughts, I might as well look at the resume.’After tidying up briefly post outing, I sat on the sofa and opened the resume. It contained more information than I expected.The most striking thing was the educational background.<Uijeongbu Daehun Elementary School><Gangneung Jukhyeon Middle School><Seoul Seokyeong High School>As for the university, it seemed like a prestigious foreign one with a name I didn’t recognize. When I looked up the locations, the elementary school was in the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province, the middle school was a rural school that closed a couple of years ago, and the high school was a prestigious private boarding school. The history didn’t seem ordinary.‘Why move so many times…?’Attending a run-down middle school and then suddenly moving to a private boarding school for high school? Did I get a full scholarship or something? The area where the elementary school was located wasn’t exactly accessible or bustling. Unless my parents won the lottery or something when I entered high school, how could this be? Or maybe they were businesspeople constantly on the run from creditors. With both parents already deceased, there was no one to ask.‘If I really want to find out…’Would Yeonseo know? I wasn’t sure. I looked through the surroundings of the elementary, middle, and high schools on Street View, but none of the locations felt particularly familiar.‘It’s like a seaside town straight out of a movie.’The only thing that caught my eye was the blue area marked beyond the beach behind the school.Hoping that something might jog my memory, I looked up photos of the nearby beach, but nothing came to mind. Just as I was beginning to feel anxious, I sensed movement beyond the firmly closed front door.‘Oh.’It was Yeonseo, coming home about an hour earlier than usual. Just like yesterday, he bowed his head as soon as he entered and went straight to the bedroom. His skittish movement, like a hermit crab scurrying into a crevice to avoid predators, made me laugh.‘Does he think I’m going to eat him?’I was the one feeling so lost and wanting to run away. After confirming that no more sounds came from the bedroom, I put a pot on the stove and cooked some ramen I had bought yesterday, eating a late dinner. My stomach felt a bit unsettled from having noodles for both lunch and dinner, but I didn’t feel like walking around outside at this hour.After taking out the trash and washing the pot, I sat in the silent house. The only sounds were those of the appliances running, and even my own breathing was barely audible. I hated the stillness. I found myself standing in front of the bedroom door, about to knock, but realized I had no excuse to do so.How did we meet, how did we end up getting married, and what was I like as a spouse? I had a mountain of questions, but his clear signs of refusal kept me from speaking up.I stared at the tightly closed door for a while before heading to the bedroom. I shoved the resume into a corner of the bookshelf and played some random video of my past self on the laptop. The quiet of the house was unbearable, so I turned the volume up quite high. It was probably loud enough to be heard in the bedroom.Watching my cynical self laugh and stab at others with words on screen, I eventually fell asleep as I saw myself throw a dish into the trash for the third time.Perhaps because I had been thinking about my inconsistent educational history before bed, I dreamed of the sea that night. I stood waist-deep in an uninhabited ocean, looking at a small island with a single tree in the distance. Each time the waves surged, the water rose to my chin. I was walking towards the deeper part.As the water, which had been splashing at my waist, rose to cover my chest and face, I felt like I was about to collapse as if my legs had given out. Just then, someone roughly pulled me up. My vision was blurred, perhaps from the foam of the crashing waves, rain, or my own tears. My whole body shivered as my lips turned blue, but the warmth of the person holding me tightly made me feel secure. There was a yearning in that warmth, as if it was begging me to stay.When I woke from the long dream, I was still alone, lying on a bed too big for one person, without any warmth beside me. The night was as unbearably long as ever.* * *Meanwhile, in the dim hours when most workers were asleep preparing for the next day, a man sat alone on a bed too wide for one person, the kind newlyweds might use. He turned on a phone with a cracked and shattered screen. The display flickered as the phone powered on, showing a bunch of missed calls and unread text messages.He silently opened the voicemail inbox, noticing a string of messages from the same number. With an expressionless face, he played one of the files, and a familiar, irritated voice came through.– Why haven’t you been answering your phone lately? Are you okay? I went to that hotel you and Eunchae visited last time. Just thinking about how you were checking things out there made me so turned on, but you didn’t pick up. Call me when you get this. I’ve already convinced the board about what we discussed last time, so all we need is your decision.There were nearly thirty missed calls from the same number after that. The man turned off the phone again and put it in the bag he had brought home after work. With a faint sigh, he collapsed onto the bed, lying there motionless for a long time before finally sitting up to open a drawer. Inside was a document he had filled out but never submitted, hesitating too many times.Most of the form was completed, but one side remained unsigned. He picked it up, hesitated for a while, then put it back, lacking the courage once again.Perhaps this was the perfect opportunity for that person to cut ties with him and start anew. But with the other person not yet fully rehabilitated, he couldn’t just leave them alone. He closed the drawer with a deep sigh. It might be selfish, but…He had prayed countless times to undo their tangled relationship, willing to pay any price, but this wasn’t the way he had imagined. He couldn’t even clearly articulate what he wanted, adding to his frustration.Lying on the bed, trying not to think, he eventually got up, took a pill from the minibar, and swallowed it with some water. As his eyelids grew heavy, he thought he heard a familiar voice, but he knew it was just a hallucination, a product of his longing.If he could conjure any voice in his mind, there was one thing he wished to hear, but even in his imagination, his wish never came true.‘Did you think we’d share the same room?’The disdainful gaze felt like a dagger in his heart. The unspoken words left a scar.‘Can I call you Yeonseo?’He vividly remembered the time he had been called that. Back when he was a head shorter and Yeonseo seemed like the tallest person in the world, leaving the house together for school, waiting on tiptoe by the window for him to come home, those peaceful times. When he hugged him with his small hands and was gently embraced in return.“That’s all in the past now.”When Yeonseo had casually uttered that short word, it felt like being transported back more than ten years. More than all the hurtful words he had heard over the years, that one playful comment left him breathless. It made him wonder if he had any right to feel hurt, making him feel selfish. As he drifted into unconsciousness, he wished for an end to this seemingly endless situation.* * *The next morning, I woke up late, opened the bedroom door, and found a note on the dining table. The neat handwriting suggested they had checked the refrigerator and the trash bin I had used yesterday.<Instant food probably doesn’t suit your taste. I thought you’d skip breakfast, so I prepared something in the fridge.>Puzzled, I opened the fridge to find an unexpectedly lavish meal waiting for me.“Wow.”There were fresh fruits, a sandwich filled with fresh vegetables and expensive-looking ham, and other items perfect for a light breakfast. Although I didn’t mind instant food, this was obviously better than having ramen for breakfast. I quickly grabbed a sandwich, and with the first bite, the slightly spicy, creamy, and sweet sauce made it enjoyable to eat until the last bite.‘Good food really is great.’It was amusing to rediscover something so obvious, but I felt very satisfied after filling my stomach.‘I think I’ve always liked eating.’It was an obvious statement. How could someone who disliked eating endure a ten-hour shoot as a food judge, constantly tasting food? I didn’t feel sick when eating unappetizing food, so maybe my taste buds hadn’t completely changed with the memory loss. Eating something well-made put me in a good mood, giving me hope that I still had some sense of taste.Alright then… Before my rehabilitation session in the afternoon, I decided to try making something myself again. But 40 minutes later, my resolve was shattered.I thought I followed the recipe correctly, so why did it taste burnt? I couldn’t figure out the reason.