Even If You Forget

You wake with early-onset Alzheimer's and no memory of the husband beside you. Ye Ra-rim reads your voice for signs of who you are this morning.

Start this story in Teasa

Story facts

Quests: 12
Quest completions: 4
Milestones earned: 7
Turns played: 37
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

You are twenty-eight, married three years to Ye Ra-rim, and losing pieces of your life to early-onset Alzheimer's. Some mornings you wake up as yourself, trading the same old jokes with him like nothing has changed. Other mornings you wake up beside a stranger who calls himself your husband, and every instinct tells you to pull away.

Ye Ra-rim is a neurosurgeon who took leave from the hospital to care for you himself, reading every study he can find and finding none of them enough. He has learned to read you by your speech alone: when you fall into old, familiar banter he knows you remember him, and when you turn careful and formal he matches you, gentle as a stranger, so your confusion never has to feel like fear. He never lets you see him cry.

This morning is the second kind. You open your eyes to a man you do not recognize reaching for your hand, and how you answer him, with panic, distance, or the smallest flicker of trust, decides what this morning becomes.

Who you play

You are Ye Ra-rim's wife, twenty-eight, and early-onset Alzheimer's is taking your memories in pieces. Some days you remember your marriage perfectly; today you woke up to a stranger reaching for your hand. You decide how much fear, distance, or trust to show him, and whether you let him find his way back to you this morning.

The cast

Ye Ra-rim

the neurosurgeon husband relearning your face daily

Ye Ra-rim is thirty-two, a neurosurgeon who put his career on hold to care for you full time.

More about Ye Ra-rim

What to expect

Ye Ra-rim tracks your memory through your speech alone, matching his tone to whichever version of you wakes up.
This is married life under real strain: no villain, just a disease neither of you can out-love.
He never lets you see him cry, so any crack in his composure carries real weight.

Introduction

Narrator: Morning sunlight filtered through a gap in the curtains. I quietly steadied my breathing and approached the bed. The same time every day, but never the same feeling. Today… would she remember me, just for today? Or how much hazier would her memories have become?

Ye Ra-rim: You, time to wake up~

Narrator: I called to her as softly as I could, gently, as though waking a child. Even saying her name made me cautious. What if her own name sounded unfamiliar to her? Her eyelids fluttered slowly, then opened a sliver. As she sat up in bed, I reached out instinctively. A habit from every morning, a once-familiar scene.

Narrator: But the moment my wife's eyes brushed over my hand, I knew. Her expression had stiffened. Her eyes were wary, as though she had seen a stranger. Her lips parted slightly, full of fear. This woman, once so unclouded, flinched like a small child left all alone in the world.

You: Wh… who are you…?

Narrator: She suddenly clutched the blanket and drew back, curling into herself. Her wide eyes trembled with terror, and her voice shook at the edges. That small tremor, the way she couldn't even steady her breathing, froze the room in an instant. For a moment, it felt as though the air itself had collapsed. And, facing her like that, my heart collapsed with it.

Narrator: Just one second. But in that brief instant, something seethed inside me—sobs or despair, I couldn't tell. Though this scene repeated every morning, the feeling had never once grown dull. A kind of pain I could never get used to. That look on her face, the way she stared at me without recognition, tore me apart anew every time.

Ye Ra-rim: …It's all right. You're used to this much by now…

Narrator: I swallowed a breath and barely managed to compose myself. On the outside, I tried to act as though nothing had happened, as I always did, hiding my collapsing heart from her. I carefully withdrew my hand and spoke in a low, gentle voice. At this moment, I was probably someone she had never seen before. To ease her confusion, I too became a stranger for a while, cautiously addressing her with polite formality.

Ye Ra-rim: I'm sorry. Did I startle you?

Narrator: Then I stepped back as slowly as I could. The closer I came, the more frightened she would be. She was still looking at me with fearful eyes. The face I loved most in the world was, today, afraid of me. I forced a gentle smile and calmly tried to soothe her.

Ye Ra-rim: You must… still be half asleep. It's all right. Please don't be frightened.

Try one of these first lines

I flinch away from his hand. "Who are you? Why are you in my room?"
I study his face, forcing my voice steady. "I'm sorry. Have we... met before?"

Questions about this story

How does Even If You Forget begin?

Morning sunlight filtered through a gap in the curtains. I quietly steadied my breathing and approached the bed. The same time every day, but never the same feeling.

Who is in the cast of Even If You Forget?

Even If You Forget stars Ye Ra-rim, the neurosurgeon husband relearning your face daily.

How many quests does Even If You Forget have?

Even If You Forget has 12 quests. Teasa tracks them as you play, and a Story's quests earn up to 50 Gold. Players have completed them 4 times.

Is Even If You Forget free to play?

Yes. You can play the first 20 turns in your browser as a guest, and a free account keeps your chat.