ONE DAY

Who are you? (2)

Gradual changes in Sun's attitude can be seen daily. Ji was half-happy about it and half-worried, because people are not used to these kinds of Sun's actions.

"Have you finished the assignment, Sun?"

"Uhm, yes. I have already submitted my assignment to Mr. Park before coming here."

"Whoa, good thing you still know your priorities."

"What do you mean?"

"You kept on scrolling and doing something on your tablet. Seems like you're not finished with your research."

"We don't have any research papers now though."

"Academically, yes. But you keep on searching for that 'Moon' guy."

"Ofcourse, duh! I'll never stop looking for him until I see him again. Where's your common sense, Ji?"

"Alright, alright. I'm afraid the time will come that I will ask for the old version of you. I'm on the verge of asking 'Who are you?' By the way, I will be meeting Ming today. Want to come with us?"

"Oh no. You can go on without me. Mom's gonna be at the condo tonight. Do you want to come over, though?"

"Oh really? I wanted to see her badly. But Ming and I had plans. Maybe, next time."

Sun nodded while fixing her things. Ji left her as Ming came across their classroom.

"I don't want to go home yet. Shall I go to the mall? Yeah right. I have to buy some stationery." She told herself before standing.

Before completely exiting the room, Sun felt that someone was looking at her from the outside. She ran towards the door to see who it was but the man ran away, making his way downstairs. Sun tried to chase the man but as she had gone downstairs too, there were too many students there. Feeling uncomfortable, Sun just got out of university and went to a bookstore.

Looking onto different types of stationery, Sun ran towards the pens' corner and tried some of them. While doing so, she saw a message on the testing paper where it says: "Sun, you look so bright as ever." She laughed silently and stared at it. She grabbed a pen from the shelf and wrote "Moon, you bring so much light as ever <3." The message might be literally about the sun, but she remembered Moon for the nth time. Sun also can't get over the painting, the reason why she wanted to see Moon badly.

After getting the stationery she needed and grabbing some food for her mother, Sun decided to walk home since the mall is also only a walking distance from her condo. Munching her favorite ice cream, Sun received a call. As she's struggling to answer the phone, a thief got her phone. Out of shock, Sun dropped her paper bags and ran to chase the thief, but before she could have reached him she bumped into a familiar guy and collapsed. "Moon." was the last word he could have uttered before everything went black. She reminisced about everything that happened that day.

Opening her eyes after collapsing was not a new thing for Sun, since she always collapsed, even before the festival incident. Seeing the flashing lights above her, she could tell that she was in the Emergency room. And to her surprise, she saw her mother beside her.

"Mom?"

"Oh God- Thank God you're awake."

"Mom, what happened?"

"Your friend called me and said you collapsed after chasing a thief. Luckily, he saw my contact details at your ID. How are you feeling?"

"Well, I think I'm fine now, Mom. By the way, where's Ji?"

"Were you with Ji a while ago?"

"No, Mom, but you said she called you."

"A male friend of yours called me. I forgot to ask his name. But he's this tall and he has glasses on. A good looking young man, I may say."

The sight of the man that he saw before collapsing flashed before her eyes. "It's Moon. Where is he Mom?"

"He told me that he had some errands to do. That's why he left as soon as I came."

"I need to see him, Mom." Sun tried to stand up but her Mom stopped her.

"Are you out of your mind? Can't you see your condition? Let us wait for the Doctor's findings of you."

Sun had no choice but to stay at the hospital while she could have seen Moon for the third time. One hour had passed when the Doctor came.

"Hello, Ma'am. As per Sun's record, she had panic attacks before because of her agoraphobia. And it's getting worse. She may collapse again even though she's alone. She should have better care. Let us seek some professional help. She might take medications."

Sun can hear her mother and the Doctor's conversation. And it made her feel outraged.

"That's not true, Mom." She shouted. "I have already overcome my sickness. I can go to public places alone. In fact, I just came from the convenience store to buy some snacks for you. I even went to a book store. I can go to crowded places now. You can ask my friend if I can go on with my life outside my room now." Sun burst into a cry.

The truth is, Sun may have totally overcome her fear of going alone and going to public places, but still, one of the many signs of her condition is that they can't be in a situation where it makes them feel trapped, helpless and embarrassed because they would really have sudden outbursts. That's the reason why she bursts with outrage upon hearing what the Doctor had told her mother. She felt embarrassed towards her mother that she had to go through medication again.

"I will not go on any medication because I don't have the need to." Sun stood up, took everything out of her, even the dextrose that she had, and ran outside the hospital. Crying, she reached her condominium unit and locked herself in her room.

Moments later, she heard her mother knocking and ringing the doorbell.

"Sun, please open the door for me. Please, Sun."

Sun calmed herself after crying for minutes and opened the door for her mother. She knew her mother would scold her. But she didn't. Instead, her mother hugged her and caressed her. Making Sun to cry more. "Mom, I'm really sorry."

"No, dear. Everything's fine. I should be the one saying sorry. I didn't believe that you're doing just fine now. I should not ask the doctor to check everything about your phobia."

"I just want to lift the burden out of you and Dad. I want to prove to you that I can live a normal life now. I'm sorry, Mom. I'm sorry."