The sun had barely risen, casting pale streaks of gold across the skyline, when Lu Chen's car pulled into the private parking lot beneath his office tower. He hadn't even stepped out of the vehicle when his phone buzzed sharply—Mingze.
Lu Chen picked it up on the first ring.
"You never call me this early unless something happened," he said, unlocking the glass doors with a biometric scan as he entered the building.
Mingze didn't respond at first. Lu Chen heard only silence—then a sigh, long and weighed.
"I saw her last night."
Lu Chen froze in the elevator. "Yinyin?"
"No. Her." Mingze's voice dropped. "Yu Yin."
Lu Chen leaned against the metal wall, his jaw tightening. "You went to the villa?"
"I forgot my cufflinks from the dinner two nights ago, thought I'd just swing by and grab them from the side cabinet in the living room. Didn't expect to see her outside, crying."
Lu Chen's entire posture straightened. "Crying? Why?"
"She said she was just out for fresh air, but her eyes were red, and she was obviously wiping her cheeks when I got there." Mingze sounded frustrated, like someone trying to put together a puzzle without the corner pieces. "I don't know what hit me harder—seeing her like that, or realizing she had no idea why she was crying."
Lu Chen's gaze lowered. "She's forgetting the most important parts of her life."
"Not just forgetting." Mingze exhaled. "She's lost a decade of memories, Lu Chen. Ten years. Everything after we left high school... gone. All of university. All of our summer trips. That time she punched that producer because he said Yinyin's laugh was annoying. She doesn't even know how fiercely loyal she is."
The elevator dinged open to the top floor. Lu Chen didn't step out.
"I wasn't prepared for it," Mingze admitted. "She looked at me like I was a stranger... but at the same time, it's like her heart still remembers the bond we had. She smiled at me the same way she used to. But there was no depth behind it."
Lu Chen rubbed his temple. "She remembers Yinyin because they were together when they were children. But she doesn't remember how close the three of us became afterward."
Mingze gave a soft chuckle. "You know what's wild? She joked—again—that you and Yinyin might be dating."
Lu Chen finally stepped out of the elevator, but instead of heading to his office, he walked to the conference room and shut the blinds. "That's the second time, isn't it?"
"Yeah. And honestly, I think it's just her way of trying to make sense of everything. People don't go hanging out in balconies or exchanging glances unless there's something, right?" Mingze added teasingly.
Lu Chen didn't rise to the bait. "You think she overheard us?"
"I'm almost sure of it." Mingze's voice grew serious again. "She came out after we had that talk, when you and Yinyin were still inside. She didn't say anything specific, but... there was a shift. Like she suddenly became more alert, more determined."
Lu Chen sat down, brows drawn. "She's trying to recover her memories."
"She didn't say it, but the look in her eyes was enough. Determination. Fierce as ever. The same Yu Yin we've always known, hidden beneath this hazy version of her."
There was a pause.
"And how's Yinyin doing?" Lu Chen asked after a beat, voice softer now.
Mingze sighed. "She's pretending everything's fine. You know how she is. Acting all chill, smiling like she's got everything under control. But when I got there, I found her alone outside. She had been crying too. Quietly. You could tell she'd been holding it in for a while."
Lu Chen's grip on the chair tightened slightly.
"She's scared, Lu Chen," Mingze continued. "Scared of pushing Yu Yin too much. Scared of saying the wrong thing and making it worse. But most of all, scared she might never get her best friend back."
There was another long silence between the two men, thick with unspoken memories and the weight of shared history.
Lu Chen finally whispered, "We were supposed to be the ones protecting her."
"And we still can," Mingze replied. "But this time... maybe it's her turn to fight to remember us."
---
At the same moment, in a quiet corner of the villa, Yu Yin stood in front of the mirror, brushing her hair slowly.
The faint echo of voices—her own voice from last night—lingered in her mind. She'd overheard just a small part of Yinyin and Mingze's conversation, but it had been enough.
Yinyin had been crying.
That wasn't something she ever did casually. Yinyin, the boldest person she knew, had always been like fire—never yielding, never quiet about pain.
So what could possibly hurt her so deeply?
Yu Yin placed the brush down, staring at her own reflection. "How could I forget something so important to you?"
Her fists clenched slightly.
Everything had been so hazy at first. Names, places, even tastes. But slowly, she was starting to feel tiny sparks, little sensations—like the lemon-chili combo she always ordered, or the pink bicycle she used to ride in high school.
"Maybe..." she murmured. "Maybe if I try harder."
She turned toward the door. Tomorrow, she and Yinyin would go out—to those three places from their past. And this time, she would pay attention to every little feeling. Every flicker. Every heartbeat.
Even if it took everything she had.
Because if Yinyin could cry silently for her, then she could fight silently for Yinyin too.