When I woke up again, I was lying in a hospital bed.

A circle of curtains surrounded me, and a familiar figure's shadow was cast on them.

It was Caleb.

"Yeah, she's fine. Just passed out. That guy who called me totally overreacted. No need, I'll go now. That's a limited-edition race car, and that would be a shame if I miss it. You know how she is, she'll forget it the next second. No need to console her."

He hung up. As I watched him reach for the curtain, I instinctively shut my eyes, pretending I hadn't woken up yet.

I slowly opened my eyes when I heard his footsteps fade away. Through the small gap in the curtain, I saw his retreating back as he walked off without a second thought.

My nose stung.

I grabbed my phone. It was somehow fully charged.

I opened my electronic diary app, where I kept my records for the past seven years.

Seven years ago, I was in a car crash. Although I survived, the doctors said my brain had suffered severe trauma, causing memory issues.

One moment, I might remember something; the next, it would be gone. So, I developed the habit of keeping a diary.

I flipped through the entries, realizing that almost all of them were about Caleb.

Of course they were. I liked him and pursued him for seven years. I was terrified that I might forget him.

So I wrote about him again and again, as if I could carve those feelings into my mind.

But now, I had finally realized that I'd been a fool for these past seven years.

I created a new entry. "18th December. I will never like Caleb again!"

I packed my things and got ready to leave the hospital. As I opened the door, I bumped into someone.

The familiar scent of mint filled my nose. It was the person who had saved me.

I looked up and saw a guy with a striking, almost arrogant presence.

He lowered his phone and gave me a quick once-over, frowning. "Are you feeling better now?"

His unexpectedly familiar tone of concern made me instinctively nod.

I usually bounced back pretty fast once I got through the severe pain of my period's first day. Right now, aside from feeling weak all over, I didn't feel any other discomfort.

"Thank you for saving me." I pursed my lips, unsure of what else to say.

Suddenly, he reached up and gently brushed the corner of my eye with his thumb, wiping away the dampness. "You've been crying? What's got you down?"

I froze for a moment. When I came to my senses, I quickly stepped back.

He seemed caught off guard by my reaction. As he was about to say something, a loud voice interrupted him, booming from his phone.

"Elijah Parker, are you coming or not? This is a limited-edition race car show!"

So, his name was Elijah Parker.

He covered the phone and glanced at me. "I'm coming. Save me an extra spot."

He then grabbed me and started walking out.

I was caught off guard. "W-Wait, Elijah, where are you taking me?"

If I remembered correctly, this was our first meeting. Were we already this close?

When he heard me call his name, he looked surprised. "You remember me?"

I shook my head, a little confused. "I just heard your friend call you that..."

In other words, I didn't know him. He seemed a bit down and muttered something to himself.

Did I know him? I thought back to my terrible memory and started flipping through my diary. It had photos of everyone I knew, with names underneath.

By the time we reached our destination and the car stopped, I still hadn't found any trace of Elijah.

So, I truly didn't know him. But why did he act like we were so familiar?

Elijah brought me to a massive venue. The moment we stepped in, the deafening roar of cheers hit me. The air was buzzing with excitement.

In the center of the venue, race cars sped past each other in a blur of motion on the circular racetrack.

Because Caleb liked racing, I'd learned a bit about it too.

Perhaps it was the energy of the crowd, but I found myself clapping and cheering along when the first car crossed the finish line.

As I laughed, I felt a burning gaze on me.

I turned and saw Elijah leaning against the railing. He propped his head up with one hand as he watched me, grinning from ear to ear.

I quickly lowered my hands, feeling a little awkward.

"Feeling better now?" he asked.

I was caught off guard. I didn't expect he had brought me here because of that.

"Why do you even care how I'm feeling? After all, we just met…"

He straightened, his expression turning a bit strange. "Who says—"

Before he could finish, someone cut in.

"Sadie? What are you doing here?"

I turned around. It was Caleb and his group of friends. I never liked them. They always mocked me, calling me an idiot.

They thought I didn't remember, but I had written every word down in my diary. I really couldn't stand them.

I instinctively took a few steps back.

Elijah seemed to notice that I didn't like them. He immediately stepped forward and shielded me behind him.

"None of your business," he shot back.

I clung to him like a shield, muttering behind his back, "Yeah, what's it to you?"

Caleb's tone turned sour. "Sadie. Get over here. I'm counting from three. Three—"

"Three-two-one, one-two-three, one-two-three-four-five-six-seven." Elijah fired off without missing a beat.

"I'll teach you if you don't know how to count."

Seeing that I stayed right where I was, Caleb laughed out of sheer anger. This was the first time I hadn't done as he said.

He looked at Elijah with a flicker of inexplicable hostility in his eyes, glancing back and forth between the two of us.

Suddenly, he sneered. "Do you know she's sick?"

I looked up at Caleb in disbelief.

The next words out of his mouth were cold and cutting.

"She got in a car accident a few years ago and has some problems with her brain. To put it plainly, she's just an idiot."

As soon as he said it, his friends behind him burst into laughter.

Elijah turned to look at me.

I couldn't lift my head. I was terrified of seeing that mocking, pitiful gaze I'd grown so used to. For some reason, I couldn't bear the thought of seeing it in his eyes.

My fingers slowly let go of Elijah's shirt. I turned and fled, without looking back.

Caleb and I were both survivors of the same car crash. We met while recovering in the same ward.

When he found out I had memory issues, he made me a digital diary app and gave it to me as a gift.

He told me, "Sadie, from now on, write about me in your diary. That way, you'll never forget me. And just tell me if anyone bullies you. I'll make sure they regret it."

Back in my senior year, I sat in front of a guy who was always stirring up trouble. He never paid attention in class, and he just kept kicking the back of my chair. One day, I finally had enough and tried to talk to him nicely.

He just gave me a nasty smirk and said, "Quit pretending. With a brain like yours, do you think you can remember anything you study?"

Just from that smile, I knew he'd found out my secret, although I had no idea how. It was the first time I ever felt that kind of malice.

When Caleb heard about it, he called the guy out and got into a fight with him. After that, that boy never bothered me again. No one else did, either.

I studied the same lessons over and over. What others could learn in a day took me ten, sometimes 20 days. I kept studying it until it became muscle memory.

In the end, I barely scraped into a local second-tier university.

Caleb got into a top university up north.

Later, he introduced me to his friends. While he was introducing their names, I was silently memorizing them, determined not to mess it up.

But in the end, I still mixed them up. I called everyone by the wrong name.

They exchanged awkward glances, quickly changing the topic and asking what our relationship was. Caleb was silent for a moment before telling them we were just friends.

I didn't say anything, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed.

After all, we never confirmed our relationship despite knowing each other for so many years. It wasn't wrong to say we were just friends.

I just remember that after that incident, all his friends found out about my memory issues. Word got around. And before I knew it, they were calling me an idiot behind my back.

I was upset. I even talked to Caleb about it, but he brushed it off.

"Sadie, they're just joking. Don't take it so seriously."

Was it a joke? Why didn't I find it funny at all?

I felt a dull ache in my chest. Caleb just ruffled my hair and said, "Come on, don't overthink. You'll forget about it in a few days anyway."

However, I wrote everything down in my diary. It still hurt every time I reread those entries.

I pretended not to care. I kept telling myself it was fine as long as Caleb didn't mind.

What I never expected was that he would call me an idiot one day.

That moment shattered every wall I'd spent years building.

Over 2000 days and nights, across seven years, every diary entry I'd written had been about him.

I scrolled through them one by one. There was no end in sight.

At last, I lost all patience and pressed delete all.

"Are you sure you want to delete all 2,396 entries? Once deleted, they cannot be recovered."

Without hesitation, I clicked "Yes."