I watched her scurry out of the café. “… I must have scared her away with my aggressiveness.” I thought before reproaching myself in my mind, “Super imbecile! Since you were already going to be that aggressive, then you should have persisted on and not let her go until you get her contact number. At least it would yield some benefits other than just scaring her off.” Right… Super moron indeed! I served myself another round of castigation and grimaced on the missed opportunity.

In truth, I really do not know what made me catch her wrist the way I did. It is really uncharacteristic of me to do something like that. I mean, I have met women - many in fact… some more gorgeous, others ier, albeit all casually. But I was always able to maintain my cool, was suave till the end and was never clingy.

It is Me to know exactly what I want and take it unapologetically in all fairness and accordingly in the hours of shared passion. I never had to hold anyone back to so much as earn a denial to share her contact number.   

I sure am losing touch or perhaps I never had it. The casual flings I have had never required much effort from my end. I reckon, it helped that both willing parties know exactly what to covet and not.

So often times, other than the exchange of pseudo-names and some bodily fluid, nothing else remotely semi-permanent even remains once the lust burns out. Well, I guess the hangover does linger for a bit longer… and of late for me, the bitter taste of emptiness sure is threatening to take up permanent residency.    

For all the suaveness, good looks and intelligence that I encompass, I sure am obtuse when it came to this girl named Hyun. The reminder of how all my good look was replaced with a scrunched up possum resembling one when I suffered a brain freeze earlier from taking a sip too anxiously, reduced me to an embarrassing frown and I closed my eyes and held on to my forehead, regretting the surface of silliness I had no inkling was even present in me.

With the increased hormones working within me like the madness of rush hour traffic after our brief meeting, I could not help my mind replaying the more than pleasant last few minutes and allowed my left palm recall the electrifying feel I felt when I wrapped my hand fully around her little wrist, in desperation or not.

At that juncture, my mind floated to the recollection of noting the observation that the all important ring finger on her left hand was devoid of any rings and a smile of renewed hope broke on my face. Sweet consolation.

With a smile plastered on my face, I got out from the seat and started on my way back to MinHyuk’s clinic with renewed hope, telling myself that am so going to come back to this same Starbucks to “chance upon” her the next day and the day after and after, until the second meeting happens and I land myself her contact number. Optimistic much? Seemingly so... Then again, a guy can dream right? 

SeolHyun was still in the office when I walked in and scowled at the sight of me.

Yes, I caught it… Quite difficult not to catch her open, “I am going to persist being upset at you for now” look. Any wise man would know that fuelling further would not beget any good results especially given my recent encounters with Mom, serving as a reinforcement to the meaning of, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.

Her hostile mien was very telling and given how I mucked around with her earlier, I was ready to keep my distance when I heard her say frostily, “He’s not back yet and don’t you talk to me”. Her glacier eyes then directed me to the posh waiting area at the left side of the room with a turn of her head.

I am a smart guy who knows how to pick my battles… Well, mostly at least… And no, I am not going to antagonise this girl with steely eyes who could probably bore through metal with those stares.

So I let her have her moment. For a part of me feel that she may just be around for the long run. In this unpredictable world, there is always a need to factor in the “what ifs” – like say, what if she marries Kang MinHyuk or worse, what if she is friends with that Hyun girl I just met.

While it is one thing to push my luck a little, but it is really a whole different ball game altogether to push someone to the edge of the cliff. Hence, I followed suit like an errant puppy being punished and went to sit myself on the white leather Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona single seater seating solitarily and started to catch up on the News I missed out on with the aid of my trusted mobile.

Some 30mins of quiet bliss may have passed when my attention was interrupted with an incoming message from MinHyuk informing me that he is on his way back. I was midway in composing my reply when I heard hastened footsteps coming from the direction of the entrance, followed by SeolHyun’s frantic voice shouting, “Dr Jung. Dr Jung”.

Unthinkingly, I bounced onto my feet all alert and hurried towards the direction of the reception and there she was. Hyun… That girl from Starbucks was standing in the clinic together with a security guard holding onto her forearm and my initial instinct was to go over and remove his hands from her.

But when I did a quick visual sweep, I saw blood. Blood was trickling down her forearm leaving a trail on the white marble floor and I swiftly went to take over holding her from the security guard.

Gone was my earlier relaxed demeanour and it was like as if the work mode switch in me flicked to "In Operation", as I instructed SeolHyun to gather the equipment needed and prepare a room for examination and treatment.

Her eyes shifted from SeolHyun to land on mine. It could be our close proximity or perhaps the shock from bleeding or mayhaps her not expecting to see me, not that any of that mattered then, but her eyes were all wide, unreadable and definitely lost.

This is so not how I imagined our second meeting to be. The image I had in my head was set in Starbucks where my planned “chanced” meeting would allow me the opportunity to knock her socks off with my charisma and wit which then eventually lands me with the crucial eight digit numbers to better connect with her. No where did it remotely resemble this “victim from a nearby crime scene” entrance that was without doubt dramatic and impressionable in the least romantic way. 

I held her eyes and was leading her into the treatment room when I asked her solemnly, “What happened?”

She shifted her eyes from mine to move to her bleeding thumb and stuttered, “I… I… I cut myself with a pen knife while working on my presentation boards.”

“Ok, Let’s take a look at the extent of the cut,” I replied as I guided her to sit down on the chair and placed her hands to rest onto the lined operating table that was all ready for procedures.

I had totally forgot the existence of the security guard as I focused my full attention onto Hyun. His presence only came to me when I heard him clear his throat before saying rather apologetically, “Dr Jung is it? I will have to leave Miss Seo with you as I still have my security rounds to complete.”

I gave him a quick “Yes” and “Thank you” acknowledgement before turning around to walk to the sink about 5 steps away to wash my hands and slipped on the latex gloves, readying myself to work on her wound.

I sat down facing her and the round eyes that met mine spelt fear. 'Understandably so' I thought... After all, it is not an everyday sight for the common man on the street to see so much blood and I smiled at her reassuring before picking up the bottle of saline fluid. “I am going to irrigate the wounded lesion with this solution so that I can get better visual. It may sting a little. Let me know if the pain feels unbearable.” I explained in my usual c