Ana looked through the white door’s rectangular window and took a deep breath. It’s been a month since the accident and she’s been coming to the hospital at least three times a week to take care of Tori. She was discharged a couple times but whenever she left the hospital, before long, she had to return. The first time was a day after she woke up; she did not like to be touched so the family and Ana brought her home in a wheelchair. Her parents were unpacking her things in the bedroom when her head began to hurt: all she did was scream for ten minutes before they decided to bring her back to the hospital. The doctor gave her a check up and saw nothing wrong. She stayed another week and this time when she was discharged, she had a panic attack in the streets. Dr. Strauss decided to keep her in the hospital for observation and therapy with Dr. Choi, a psychiatrist, where she had a couple more incidents of major headaches, some causing her to faint and one more panic attack when her father, out of desperation, tried to get her to talk to him.

Ana let go of the breath she was holding and put on a smile before opening the door, “Tori~~” she sang as she walked into the room, holding up a plastic bag.

“Oh, hun! You’re finally here~” the elderly lady lying on the bed near the door said happily, “hello Mrs. Robinson.” She greeted her quickly while heading directly for Tori’s bedside, who was sitting on the bed with her arms wrapped around her legs, staring out the window.

“That girl only stares out the window all day. Doesn’t even respond when I’m talking to her” Mrs. Robinson said, for the hundredth time this month, “It’s good to have good company, that isn’t like a wall, a few times a week.” She eyed Ana who was busy taking out a Tupperware container filled with store-bought congee and a plastic spoon.

“Tori is not a wall, Mrs. Robinson.” She said, with her back facing the nosy woman, “Her eyes have more life and love than anyone I know.”

Realizing that she wasn’t in the mood to converse, Mrs. Robinson laid back into her bed, “Well, maybe she was. But I’ve been lying here for the past month with her and I see no life in that girl’s eyes. You’re one dedicated friend, girlie. It’s good to see that these days.” She faked a yawn, “Well, enjoy your time, I’m going to take a nap.” She pulled her curtains closed after eyeing the slumped shoulders of the slim college student.

Ana opened the cover of the Tupperware and placed it on the bedside table with the spoon sitting on the cover beside it, as if it was a habit, “Unnie (older sister), I brought fish congee today. You really like fish congee, do you remember?”

Tori continued to stare outside.

“I remember how we used to go to the congee house together after school. You used to say that you could have congee every day because there’s so many variety that you could never get sick of it.” She smiled to herself, “you must be sick of it now, since I bring it to you every time I come visit.”

The sun was beginning to set and the orange rays shone on Tori’s face.

“Unnie, you must want to go outside, huh? You’ve always liked the spring…”

No response.

Ana sighed and pulled out her cell phone from her pocket, “what do you want to listen to today?” she began to scroll through the list of songs, until she noticed a phone laying on the table, “oh? Unnie… isn’t this your phone?” she the screen and saw the picture gallery opened: it was a picture of Tori and her parents on her last birthday. “Uncle So must have brought this to show you pictures, huh?” she extended her hand to show Tori.

Tori turned her head to glance at the picture for a bit. Ana bit her bottom lip, maybe she’ll respond to this.

Tori’s eyes neither glimmered nor shook. She stared down at the picture for a bit, looked up at Ana and then turned back the window, uninterested.

Ana’s anticipation immediately disappeared, that was basically the most acknowledgement Tori gave anyone the past few weeks. Dr. Strauss called it a development, but apparently, not enough for him to believe she is recovering; he told her today that they should consider admitting her to the psych ward for further treatment. “Staying in the general ward without psychiatric experts immediately on hand is not going to help her,” he said.

The thought depressed Ana. She shook it off and looked through Tori’s music, “Unnie, shall we listen to your music today?.... Oh! B1A4… you really liked them, didn’t you? I don’t think we’ve listened to them since your...accident...” her voiced faded on the last word. She cleared , “let’s listen to something to match the mood for the sunset…hmmm…how about this one?”

Wonderful Tonight (unplugged ver.) began to play “It’s so wo----nderfu--l to-night, oh beautiful ni--ght.” the song echoed softly in the room.

As the song moved to the first verse, Tori’s head lifted from its position on her knees. She turned to look at Ana who, noticing that Tori stirred in response to the song was startled.

“U-unnie…?” She was holding the phone in her left hand and her right hand held her index finger like a pen to scroll through the options on the phone, but her entire body was frozen as she stared at Tori.

Tori’s gaze moved from Ana’s face to the phone. She released her legs from her embrace and leaned over to Ana, taking the phone out of her hand, slowly, and gently. She stared at the screen with her head slightly tilted, as if she was trying to recognize something she saw for the first time. As the boy group in her phone began to sing the chorus of the song, she used her index finger to tap the screen. Lyrics to the song appeared on the screen as her eyes widened to take in the symbols written on the screen; some English and Korean words. She leaned closer to read the words and found herself scanning the lines easily. She used her finger again to scroll down and find the lyrics that matched the part that was playing.

“U…U….unnie!!” Ana said in bewilderment, “do you recognize the song? Do you remember something??” Ana felt tears building up in excitement. She pressed the button on the wall and waited for a nurse to enter the room, “Call Dr. Strauss, please! Tori remembers something! And… I think she’s reading right now!” she could not take her eyes off her friend who was focused on the device in her hands.

Dr. Strauss came running into the room minutes later. Tori placed the song on repeat and kept reading and rereading the lyrics. Ana was watching her silently try to mouth a few Korean words from the screen.

Dr. Strauss leaned over to see what she was reading, “Is that Chinese? Is Chinese her first language?” he asked Ana.

She shook her head, “That’s Korean. She was in Korea for a while a couple years go. I actually thought she forgot most of her Korean since she hasn’t used it since she’s come back.”

“That’s really interesting,” he said, “it looks like her mind is choosing to remember things related to Korea, then?”

“I don’t think so…” Ana said, “I play Korean music all the time for her… this is the first time she’s reacted to it-“ Ana forgot what else she was going to say when Tori stopped the music and looked over at her, and then the table. She placed the phone down and picked up the Tupperware of food and began to eat.

“This is amazing! She usually waits for people to leave the room when she eats, doesn’t she?” Dr. Strauss took down some notes on his clipboard, “I think she’s getting better!” He said with a smile. He pat Ana on the shoulders, “I think, she will be able to be released in a few days if this keeps up!”

Ana was excited, “really?” it was a miracle.

“Yup, I’ll go get Dr. Choi to do an examination on her stability, just out of precaution, I mean, she’s been coming out perfectly clean in all our examinations in the past, I don’t think anything would be wrong this time.”

Ana nodded, “Thank you!” Dr. Strauss left the room and Ana turned to Tori, “You hear that, unnie? You can leave this room soon! You can go home!”

No response.

Ana looked down at the phone lying on the bed and wanted to try something. She picked it up and played a random song, Can’t Stop by CNBlue came on. Ana tilted her head to watch if Tori would respond.

No response.

She played another song, this time it was a Chinese song, Regret by Jay Chou.

Sill, no response.

Biting her lip, she hoped her assumption was right and that this was not just a coincidence, and played another song by B1A4, Beautiful Target.

Tori stopped stirring the congee and sniffed from the steam that was hitting her nose. Ana stared in expectation but Tori continued to eat. Feeling disappointed, she threw the phone back onto the bed. She leaned into her seat and wiped her hands down her face, “Just when will unnie get better?” She thought to herself. Her hands slid down her face and unveiled Tori eating her food, but with her head twisted and she stared at the phone on the bed.

“Unnie….” She jumped up, in a last attempt, “Unnie…” she picked up the phone, “Do you recognize the song?”

Tori didn’t speak, like usual, but glanced at Ana for a second before continuing to stare at the phone.

“Response.” Ana though to herself. She felt her smile widen, “KYA—H” she silently screamed in excitement.

“Ahnnyung Ana ssi (Hello Ms. Ana) ” came the voice of a man from behind. “You look awfully happy. Did something happen?”

“Choi Seonseng-nim (Dr. Choi)!” She stood up in excitement, “Unnie…. Unnie... look! Her eyes!”

The 50 year old Dr. Choi leaned forward to look at her face, “What about it? Is she staring at the phone?” He straightened his posture, “I guess it’s a bit of improvement from staring out the window all day.” He cleared his voice, “But we can’t say for certain that it means she’s better.”

“Ahni-yo (no)…” she said anxiously, “her eyes. Seonseng-nim, don’t you see that glimmer? She recognizes the song!”

Dr. Choi smiled sympathetically, “I know you want to believe that’s why she’s staring at it. But we can’t be sure that’s the reason. I’ll do a thorough examination and we’ll see what we can conclude from that.” Ana pouted as he walked toward Tori, who had finished her food and was wiping . “Tori… we’re going to do a check-up now. Can you come with me?” He said, a tone slower and louder than he was speaking Ana with a moment ago, like speaking to a child.

Tori looked up at the doctor that was smiling down at her and her brows furrowed.

“Tori? Let’s go… Come…” He reached forward, cautiously.

Seeing him reach for her arm, she jerked backwards. Noticing there was no change in her response to touch, he straightened his posture and asked a nurse outside to bring in the wheelchair, “Sorry, Tori.” He motioned toward the chair that was now presented, “Shall we go for a checkup now?”

Her eyes still furrowed, Tori’s eyes followed the direction he was gesturing at and hesitantly left the comfort of the bed and sat in it. From experience, whenever she resisted, they had to give her an anesthetic and she would wake up in the doctor’s office. Ana began to roll her out of the room and Dr. Choi pat her shoulders, “From that initial response, it seems like her agoraphobia hasn’t lessoned. But let’s try to be optimistic that something is getting better.” He exited ahead of her, leaving her to give one last glace at the phone that has already stopped playing the song.

“There was definitely a glimmer.” She mumbled to herself, before following behind him.