Me After Meeting You

Elly’s father nodded, but then shortly started shaking his head. Seeing this, Amber quickly called a nurse over to bring him to Elly’s ward. She herself returned to her office, both to change into her white coat and to observe the camera footage for the ward. Inside the ward, Elly had already fallen a sleep. Her orderly but unusual posture clearly sparked some amount of sadness within her father; he’d turned away almost as soon as he saw her.

On the screen, Elly’s father cut a sorry figure. Regret, sadness, self incrimination, and vexation could all be seen flickering through his face.

Amber’s heart dropped as she saw him. Ian had been standing by her side ever since he had entered, and at this moment here tracted his gaze. “He knew about it.”

Elly father’s behavior clearly indicated that he must have known about everything that his daughter had been going through.

Amber nodded as she finished with the last button on her coat. Before leaving, she asked Ian, “I’d like to speak with him. Do you want to come?”

Actually, this was a hidden reminder that he shouldn’t go over with her. She didn’t know if Ian understood her intentions, but he glanced at her and didn’t move.

Amber pushed the door open and went out. By the time she had retrieved Elly’s medical records, her father had already returned.

She noticed that his expression had returned to its usual calm, and only his slightly trembling fingers revealed his unease.

She poured him a glass of water. He didn’t drink it, merely holding it in his hands, his gaze vacant.

Amber asked, “Do you want to go inside and speak with her?”

It seemed to take him a long moment to understand what she was saying, and he seemingly became shocked in slow motion. “She … can recognize me?”

“You seem to know that she doesn’t recognize anyone.” Amber looked at him again. “I heard that you left home three months ago. Doesn’t that mean that the patient was exhibiting similar symptoms at least before then, or even earlier?”

“Yes.”

“About how long ago?”

Elly’s father somewhat arduously forced out his words. “About a year ago, but at that time, she only had occasional moments where she couldn’t recognize people and mumbled nonsense.”

“Did she have any other symptoms?”

He shook his head.

“Then when did it start becoming more serious?”

“About half a year ago. When I returned home, I realized that things couldn’t go on the way they were with her, and wanted her to go learn more.”

Amber stopped taking notes and raised her head. “You forced her back to school?”

“… Yes.” As Elly’s father spoke, he started shaking and brought out a pack of cigarettes, but he couldn’t seem to light one with his trembling hands and finally gave up, clutching his head. “At that time, none of us knew how sick she really was. We once dragged her out of her room, kicking and screaming, making a huge fuss. Then I got angry and hit her. She ran out, and it took us a whole day before we found her in a half forgotten graveyard.”

As he recounted this event, he shivered. Clearly, that experience had left him semi traumatized.

Amber asked, “What happened after wards?”

“After that, she would head there daily, right after dark, and she was always saying things that scared others. Slowly, she started being unable to recognize people as well.”

“You never took her to see a doctor?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“My mother said that she wasn’t ill, only possessed, and that it would be fine once we burned some incense and prayed to the gods. And since she was still young, we were afraid that any news of her mental illness would be bad for her ….”

Amber couldn’t keep listening to this.

“Afraid that it would be bad for her, or afraid that it would look bad on you?” When Elly’s father lowered his head without answering, she changed the topic, tired of this conversation. “I want to investigate the reasons behind her illness so that I can come up with a treatment plan for her. As far as I know, she only started exhibiting those symptoms after she quit school. Do you know why she quit school? Her elementary school grades weren’t bad, so why would she quit right after entering middle school?”

Elly’s father spoke softly. “She … she didn’t listen.”

“Only that?”

He lowered his head.

Amber brought out her phone. “I have a short video here ….”

Elly’s father was so shocked hestood up, his chair screeching as he got up.”W-What video?”

Amber tried to remain calm as she replied, “A video that explains why she quit school. Do you want to see it?”

“No!” Elly’s father refused her suggestion right away. He was extremely surprised, and even the expression on his face seemed to distort slightly. “Why do you have that? Didn’t they say that all of it had been deleted?”

“So you know what happened,” Amber stated slowly. Despite her growing anger, she didn’t want to provoke him. “Haven’t you ever thought of getting justice for her? No, more accurately, didn’t Elly ever want you to get justice for her, to punish those bullies?”

Elly’s father didn’t respond. He glanced at her and said that he needed to look at her phone. Then, almost as if he had seen a monster, he ran off, stumbling.

Amber quickly stood up and chased after him. “Mr. Brown!”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

But he ran even more quickly, entered the stairs not long after, and disappeared from her sight after that. By the time Amber reached the stairway, she couldn’t even see his shadow. At the bottom of the stairs, there were only some by standers who didn’t know what had happened.

She stood there without speaking. The nurses who had heard the commotion and chased after her had finally caught up. “Dr. Camille, what’s wrong?”

Amber didn’t even know what to say, and could only ask, “Did the patient in ward no. 24’s guardian leave his contact information behind?”

“No. When he got here, he asked about the patient’s situation, and then just sat there ina daze, not responding to any questions.”

The nurse seemed quite displeased, but Amber only frowned at the situation. Elly’s father behavior was really unexpected; it seemed like his mental condition wasn’t the best, either.

“Amber!” Just as Amber was thinking about what she should do next, the elevator doors opened, and a male and two females walked out. Leading them was Trysta, the new bride fresh from her honeymoon. She was dressed brightly and fashionably, and her face was filled with the happiness and joy of being a newlywed. Holding her hand was the girl who had been her bridesmaid.

Amber was overjoyed. “Why’re you guys here?” And when her gaze passed over both of them and landed on the man behind them, she was barely able to suppress her smile.