Dedicated to someone who made me tear up at their portrayal at a brother grieving, and a wonderfully written story too....Thanks for reading and voting! Enjoy!

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"Hi."

"Hello?", responded a puzzled Olivia as she encountered a stranger yet again.

"How you doing?", he queried, looking upon a very befuddled Latina.

"Um...good, I guess," she replied. "You?"

Was this someone she had met before? Why were they looking at her like that?

Too bad she had never been good at remembering faces even before...the accident.

"Good, thanks for asking. It has been a while since we last met. Still living near campus, I see."

"Yes," she answered. "Sorry, your name is..."

"Dan," he stated, then commented in a light-hearted tone, "Yours is Olivia, right?"

"Uh huh." Saved from the awkward conversation by a call, she picked up on the second ring, speaking into the phone, "Mami, ¿Cómo tú estás? ...Mami, ya hablamos sobre esto. Voy a vivir con mi primo, Steven. No voy a mudarme a Tennessee si tú y papi todavía se quedan ahí ..."

Wandering off, she left Dan in the dust.

Wondering what he had done wrong...again.

That afternoon, Dan met up with a fellow GTA, Josh, for drinks at his townhouse.

Recalling what had happening earlier in the day, he asked, "Josh, you know any Spanish?"

"Yeah, I know some. I took Spanish in college to fulfill Gen Eds."

"What does 'primo' mean?"

"Cousin. Why you wanna know?"

"No reason," he mumbled, taking a swig from a Sprite bottle to ease his nerves.

Still hung up on Olivia not recognizing him, he continued his line of questioning.

"Do you happen to know any neuroscience?"

"Neuroscience," he muttered. Pointing to another female in the vicinity, he said, "She does."

"You know Neuroscience?", he repeated.

"Yes, I mean I majored in Neuroscience, research as a neuroscientist and am in medical school so yeah I do," she snapped.

"I didn't mean it like that...", he said.

At this rate, the whole university campus would be after his very ignorant non-PC butt.

"Don't mind him-he's from Korea. Up until recently, it very conservative there towards women in STEM, you know?"

"Um...well no, and Aish," he mumbled to his friend Josh, glaring at him for implying he was sexist. Josh cackled at his expense, and the neuroscientist burst into a round of giggles.

"I was just teasing. You must be Dan, right?"

"This is my girlfriend, Gloria," Josh said.

"Your Puerto Rican goddess you mean," she taunted back.

Nervously swallowing, Dan said, "What do you know about memory?"

"Now that's a complicated field. What you wanna know?"

"Just...a certain someone not remembering me even though we've met several times..."

"Recognizing faces? Now that's a hard one even for me!", Josh teased.

"For some people, it takes longer than others to stop viewing you as a stranger but that's just in general," Gloria explained.

"Why you asking?", Josh quizzed.

"It's nothing...", he replied.

"Ooo...tell me is the someone who's interested you of the female variety? Are you hitting on her and she not giving you the time of day?"

Immediately, a slap popped the back of his head as Gloria took her turn to glare at her boyfriend.

"You know that guys and gals can be friends, right?"

"Not really," he replied.

"Oh right...not like most of my friends and coworkers are male, or that you have female friends and coworkers, right? Friendship between the sexes is very commonplace, and it doesn't have to be romantic," Olivia remarked.

Dan remained silent as the couple seemingly bickered.

Biting his lip, Josh added, "Some friendships can turn romantic though, right? Like us for instance."

"True, but most don't. Or are you telling me you're eyeing your female friends up for size?"

"NEVER!", he hollered. Kneeling, he continued, "Please forgive me goddess for ever questioning your never-ending well of wisdom."

Chuckling, she told him to stand up and proceeded to embrace Josh with open arms. Giving him a kiss on the cheek, she left to fry an omelet in the kitchen for her and her beau.

Dan did his very best to suppress a gag and stay still.

"Anyways, do you really want to get to know her?", asked his pal Josh.

"Maybe," he quipped.

"Hmm...how about watching telenovelas? You have cable, I assume?"

"Learning Spanish from telenovelas?", he curiously inquired.

"Yes, why not? You watch k-dramas, right?"

"That's different."

"Not really-think of Mexican telenovelas as the equivalent to K-dramas. Don't people learn Korean from watching those shows all the time?"

Dan objected. "Look, I only watch those to keep my Korean. How else would I so here?"

"Josh, that's an insult to telenovelas if I ever heard one," stated Josh's girlfriend, Gloria, as she strolled right in and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, honey," he said, beaming at his Puerto Rican lady.

Facing the clueless Korean, the Puerto Rican goddess remarked, "Telenovelas are full of passion, love, gore, family feuds, crime and ridiculous plot twists. Not even cliched k-dramas could compare to the chaos that reigns in those things."

"So you're telling me not to watch them?", he queried with a nervous grin.

"Nope. I'm telling you to learn Spanish however it works for you-and if it's telenovelas, then watch them. Myself-I think they're trash, but others in my family like them."

"Can you maybe just teach me a bit of Spanish yourself?"

"Let's start with the basics then," Gloria started. "What your name is, and where you're from."

"Repeat after me," said Josh. "Mi nombre es Dan y yo soy de Korea."

"Mi nombre es Dan y yo soy de Korea."

"Jaja...ja," stated the girlfriend as she struggled to repress her chuckles at his pronunciation.

Taking his hand in hers, she said, "Let's try this again..."

At the university writing center, Jon made his way to the front desk, and was greeted by the university worker.

"I need some help for some students writing their papers...", he started.

"Oh, go over there, you'll be working with one of our consultants. Just tell them what you need."

"Thanks...they really need the help. In history class, they have to write papers, and as this is a Gen Ed, they're hopeless...really." Sighing as he thought about all the papers he would have to grade, he rubbed his jaw and wondered for the umpteenth time why he got into academia.

Taking a piece of paper, he headed over to the desks as Kasey spotted the desperate GTA.

She recognized instantly that it was the 'hottie' guy from the café.

"Well hello there," she mused as the South American-born student walked towards her.

"This is one of our best consultants," pointed out another university student who worked there as he left to return to the desk.

"Jon," he introduced.

"Kasey."

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Author's note: Let me remind y'all again, Dan has a habit of offending people. *laughs*

Spanish Translation: Mommy! How are you? ...Mommy we talked about this. I'm going to/am living with my cousin, Steven. I will not move to Tennessee with you and dad if you (decide to) stay there.