BIA Ch. 3

This is… A dream? Am I dreaming right now?

Isaiah pinched his cheek unconsciously. The man in the mirror also pinched his cheek. He frowned in pain, and the man in the mirror frowned in the same way.

“What is this….”

Isaiah muttered, half out of his mind.

“What is it? Your own handsome mug.”

Manny responded to what Isaiah had muttered to himself.

“No…. This is…, this isn’t me….”

Isaiah kept muttering.

“You crazy bastard, you need to wake up even if you had taken drugs,”

Manny, who had been speaking irritably, stopped abruptly, shocked.

“You, you, are you crying?”

Manny stuttered in disbelief as he watched Isaiah suddenly burst into tears.

“I don’t know. I…, am I really going crazy…? … ?”

Isaiah lowered his head, gripping the sink. Tears plopped onto the sink’s surface.

“Isaiah.”

“But it’s true, Manny. I…, I’m not this man. I… , I’m me. Isaiah Diaz….”

Isaiah said, wiping away the ceaseless stream of tears with his hands. Seeing Isaiah finally begin to sob loudly, Manny said “Hey, c-calm down.” waving both of his hands.

“Calm down, okay? Isaiah.”

It felt as if Manny was the one who needed to calm down more, but Isaiah didn’t say anything. In the meantime, Manny grabbed Isaiah and sat him down on the toilet.

“I’ll contact Chester first,”

“Who is Chester…?”

Isaiah asked, wiping his tears with his sleeve. As if there was still more to be surprised about, Manny’s face registered another shock. After staring at Isaiah for a long moment with widened pupils, Manny finally swallowed hard and spoke.

“Who is he? Your lover.”

Chester arrived a little before five o’clock. Perhaps because Manny had briefly explained the situation to him over the phone, Chester wasn’t surprised to see the corpse sprawled out on the front porch. He merely frowned and nudged the corpse’s chin this way and that with the toe of his shoe.

Finally, after wiping his dirty shoes on the corpse’s clothing, Chester entered the living room. Isaiah couldn’t hide his bewilderment as he watched Chester approach.

If Manny had relatively ordinary good looks with brown hair and brown eyes, Chester, with his reddish-blond hair and green eyes, was undeniably an Irish heartthrob. He was even tall. However, he was so thin that despite his height, he gave a rather delicate impression, which suited his handsome face. It was as if he were a model for a high-end fashion collection. And, in fact, everything he wore was designer label.

It was somewhat unbelievable. That he had such a rich and handsome lover.

If one were to ask if he was surprised that his lover was a man, it wasn’t all that surprising. Although he couldn’t remember last night’s events, when he vaguely recalled himself drinking and having fun with his friends, there had been only men around. They had even engaged in some rather intimate physical contact.

So, while he was surprised to learn he had a lover, he wasn’t surprised that his lover was a man. But he had never imagined that his lover would be this handsome and wealthy.

“Now you’re even pretending to be crazy to piss me off.”

Unfortunately, it seemed their relationship wasn’t very good. Well, if it had been good, there was no way he would have brought another man home.

“Pretending…, I don’t think so.”

Manny spoke on behalf of Isaiah, who was sitting on the edge of the sofa with his head bowed like a guilty man.

“Then you’re saying he’s really lost his mind? And of all days, today? At this very moment?”

Chester slapped Manny’s cheek, asking if he truly believed that.

“What? Are you crazy?”

Isaiah was so startled that he instinctively jumped to his feet and shouted.

“You could have just used your words, why would you hit him?”

“What?”

“That’s right. It’s a situation where words would have been sufficient, but why did you slap him without warning? And Manny wasn’t lying. He just believed what I said….”

As he spoke, he felt even more apologetic.

“Manny, are you okay?”

Isaiah craned his neck and asked Manny, who was sitting on the adjacent sofa. Instead of answering, Manny gave Chester a look that said, See?. Chester looked back and forth between Manny and Isaiah, then narrowed his eyes and laughed.

“So, you’re pretty serious about this?”

He clearly still believed Isaiah was acting.

“But you’ve chosen the wrong target. I’ll play along with you as much as you want after work, so cut it out and get changed.”

As Chester’s expression turned harsh again, Isaiah stammered in protest.

“It’s not an act, I really….”

“I told you to cut it out.”

Chester swore and pulled a gun from inside his coat. Isaiah screamed and threw both hands up in the air.

“You’re really going all out, aren’t you?”

“Okay, I understand. This year’s Oscar is yours. So, stop the show and quickly change your clothes. And drop that killer tone.”

Chester, who had been speaking fiercely, closed his mouth. It was because Isaiah turned pale, stumbled backward, and collapsed onto the sofa.

“P-Put the gun away and tell me. No, put the gun away and tell me. I’ll do as I’m told, so please put the gun away….”

“…..”

Chester looked back and forth between Isaiah, panting on the sofa, and the pistol in his hand. Then, he turned his head to look at Manny. Manny nodded silently. He had an expression that said, “See? I told you.”

“He says his name is Isaiah Diaz.”

“What…? Who is that?”

Chester asked with a dumbfounded look.

“I don’t know. He says he’s nineteen and attending Eloy State University.”

“What? What bullshit? He hasn’t even stepped foot near a high school. He barely graduated middle school.”

Chester retorted sharply, even though he was dumbfounded.

“When I said that, he screamed and hit his head against the wall.”

Manny made it sound as if Isaiah had harmed himself out of shock at being a middle school graduate, but that wasn’t the case. Isaiah hit his head against the wall with a sliver of hope that his memories might return. Of course, the only thing that returned was the pain in his forehead.

Before Chester arrived, Isaiah tried to explain himself, that is, the person named Isaiah Diaz, to Manny.

But he couldn’t recall anything. He was certain he had a mother, but he couldn’t remember her name. He couldn’t even describe her appearance.

It was the same with everything else. He insisted, spitting as he spoke, that he grew up in a seaside town near Liberty Harbor, and that he still went there every weekend to see his mother. But when Manny asked for his exact address, he became speechless. He knew he was attending Eloy State University, yet he couldn’t recall the name of the high school he graduated from.

Meanwhile, Manny questioned Isaiah, who kept mentioning Eloy State University. What was his major? What was his favorite class? If he lived in a dorm, how many roommates would he have? What was his best friend’s name and phone number? What menu would he recommend at the school cafeteria? Isaiah could only answer that he was an English major.

In the end, all Isaiah knew about himself were five things. His name, age, the university he was attending, his major, and the seaside town.

On the other hand, Manny knew a lot about Isaiah Cole.

‘Latino? Look, you can tell just by looking in the mirror that you’re Asian. To be precise, you’re Korean. I don’t know for sure, but you were probably born into a shitty family and adopted into another shitty family. That’s why you ran away from home constantly and barely graduated middle school. Eloy State University, my ass. I guarantee you’ve never even been near the place. And what? A party with friends? You’re the kind of guy who finds socializing like torture. You smoke, but you don’t drink or do drugs. So, there’s even less of a chance you’d enjoy something like a party.’

Manny even showed him photos saved on his phone. It was a picture of a group of dark-haired men, smiling and holding beer mugs in an Irish pub bathed in green light from the sign outside. Everyone’s faces were flushed from drinking, but there was one man sitting alone in the corner, smoking a cigarette with a bored expression. It was the same face he had seen in the bathroom mirror a little while ago.