Disclaimer: I don't own DotS.

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Yoo Si Jin never thinks of himself as being a selfish person.

It is a little bit embarrassing to say it himself but it’s not like he has any option of being otherwise. His job as a soldier requires that he prioritize the life of others over that of himself. And so far he has had no trouble abiding to that rule.

That is, until he meets the little bundle of contradiction called Kang Mo Yeon.

Si Jin can be very generous, forgiving, and patient towards just about everybody, but once Kang Mo Yeon is included in the equation, he begrudgingly admits that he turns into a spoiled little child who wants and demands all of her attention—no, scratch that, he wants every single thing about Kang Mo Yeon, from her smile to her frowns to her tears and to her laughters, from the tip of her toes to the crown of her head—he wants everything to be his.

Is it weird that sometimes he feels a little bit jealous whenever he sees her tending to her patients with so much care and attentiveness? It makes him wants to try and pretend to be sick for a day just to get her take care of him for the entire day. Just the two of them, with nobody else interrupting, no sudden black-ops mission and no late on-call nights that leads to him waking up on an empty bed, missing the warmth of her petite body. But he knows much she worries about him constantly, how his job of going to the department store sometimes always manages to steal that twinkle of light from her eyes, so no matter how much he wants to try and do that he always refrains himself. He refuses to—whether intentionally or unintentionally—do anything that will rob her off her brilliant smile.

When Si Jin expresses this worry to Dae Young, his second-in-command simply pours him another glass of soju while Myeong Joo clicks her tongue at him and rolls her eyes while saying in a know-it-all tone, “Stop hovering over her so much or you will get hated. She will think you’re crazy, sunbae.”

Si Jin thinks Myeong Joo is right. He is indeed crazy.

Crazily in love with Kang Mo Yeon.

They say that love can change a man. He never realizes how much that statement rings true until he experiences it himself. It is scary how from time to time he fails to recognize himself—he never used to be so needy and clingy over someone before. Not even towards his previous girlfriends. It’s like all the little things that she does appear to be so adorable in his eyes that he can’t help but want her all to himself. His subordinates must have thought that their squadron leader is a lovesick fool, and judging by the smirks that Dae Young shoots at him whenever he says he is going to Haesung Hospital to pick up a certain someone, there are already bets going on as to when he is going to put a ring on her left hand.

Now, these certain changes that Dr. Kang evoke in him hasn’t really done anything that require any immediate rectification. Sure he gets a little bit more moody whenever she has to bail on their midnight date because she has an emergency surgery to tend to, and sure he tends to sulk more whenever their reunions are cut short because somebody always has something wrong with their body that requires her medical expertise, but she makes it up to him at the end by letting him snuggle with her on her bed or cooking him breakfast the next day.

Squadron Leader Yoo Si Jin is content with his life, selfish man or not.

But these days, Si Jin starts to notice that certain things—very, very subtle but he notices it anyways—are kind of different.

For example, he can’t help but notice that whenever he and Dr. Kang go hang out at their favourite café, there seems to be an increase in the number of eyes preying at them, ninety-nine percent of which are from males. Si Jin thinks if not for his experience being in the Special Forces for years, he would have broken a sweat from the amount of glares that are directed at him.

Another thing he notices is the amount of males—ranging from toddlers to the elderly—that are situated outside of Haesung Hospital recently. Whenever he is back from his business in the department store and as he and Dr. Kang are about to go outside to the parking lot, he always ends up having to abandon his status as her boyfriend and instead, it is as if he has suddenly become a bodyguard to a member of some girl group.

When he mentions this to Mo Yeon, the pretty doctor laughs and slaps him in the arm. He yelps from the unexpected pain, and she rolls her eyes at him, telling him that he is exaggerating, but when she pulls up his sleeve, they are met with the sight of an angry bruise with the shape of a human hand.

“Omo, did you get this from your mission at the department store?” She scowls at him and rummages through her purse for a handkerchief, “For now I will compress your arm to try to stop the vessels from rupturing any further. But you should have told me about this bruise instead of keeping silent!”

Si Jin smiles at her fussing, feeling happy for the rare occasion that he gets to be coddled over by his girlfriend, but then he remembers that not a single second in this afternoon during his mission at the department store did he make any contact with the enemy. It was a simple reconnaissance mission after all. That only means one thing.

“It seems like your admirers have been diligently keeping up with your program,” Si Jin winces as she applies a dab of some kind of balm onto the red marks, “They must have been very healthy listening to all your advices, having enough strength to even impose an injury on me.”

Mo Yeon tilts her head. “Mwo?”

“Geureonikka,” Si Jin starts again with a little bit of impatience in his voice, “This. Injury.” He makes a gesture using his finger, pointing at the bruise. “Dr. Kang’s fanboys are the ones who are responsible for this.”

Mo Yeon raises her brow. “Geuraesseo?”

“Ah, geureonikka,” Si Jin grumbles sulkily before he lowers down his head and suddenly flashes Mo Yeon with the most vulnerable slash irresistible puppy-dog look that he has been practicing secretly throughout the time they have been together, “I am hurt. A lot. It hurts so much that I can’t think properly, let alone drive myself back home through this crazy traffic. Yeouido is no joke, you see.”

“This boyfriend of mine is certainly no joke as well, you see,” Mo Yeon replies shrewdly, “in terms of slyness.”

Si Jin blinks at her innocently. “What on earth are you talking about?”

Mo Yeon giggles at her boyfriend’s antics and pokes him on the forehead. “Ahrasseo, you big baby. Since my fanboys—your words not mine—are the ones who gave you this injury, I will take responsibility and nurse you back to health myself.”

“So I can stay over again tonight?” Si Jin can’t hide the grin on his face.

“De, de. You can.” Mo Yeon then smirks at him, adding at the last minute in a singsong voice, “After all, if a certain injured person plans to attack me, I can always lock the door and leave him sleeping on the couch much like a few days ago.”

Si Jin begins to mutter unhappily but when he sees the expression on Mo Yeon’s face he quickly relents. “Ahrasseo, ahrasseo. Sheesh, I can never win against my pretty girlfriend, can’t I?”

“Well, my friends have been telling me that I am even prettier these days.” Mo Yeon cheekily replies.

However what she doesn’t know is that her unabashed statement actually lights a bulb in Si Jin’s mind and he finally knows the reason why these days it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to control his annoyance and refrain himself from pulling out the gun at her fanboys.

“You’ve been getting prettier!” Si Jin suddenly remarks, surprising Mo Yeon because not only is she caught off guard but also because he sounds like he doesn’t even notice. The doctor narrows her eyes at her boyfriend, a tick already forming in one of her brows, and Si Jin, who realizes that his words can be interpreted in the wrong meaning, quickly remedies the situation by continuing, “I mean, I have always thought of you as being pretty. But these days you have been extra pretty. And that’s the problem!”

Mo Yeon snorts incredulously. “Mworago-yo? I’m extra pretty and that’s the problem?”

Si Jin treads the water carefully, trying to convey what he is thinking without wanting her to misunderstand. “Dr. Kang, listen to me carefully,” he intones seriously, placing both of his hands on her shoulders, “from now on, as per order from your handsome boyfriend, you are not allowed to get any prettier. Okay?”

Mo Yeon slaps both his hands away and glares. “Wae? Why must I stop being pretty?” She looks at him suspiciously. “Seolma. Did you by any chance find somebody prettier than me?”

Si Jin sighs in exasperation. “Ani, not that. It’s just…”

“Just…?”

He doesn’t know if it will be wise to tell her that she has been too pretty recently and that the extra attention from her admirers are making him jealous. That sounds too silly, even in his ears. He doesn’t want her to think that he is a selfish person. Well, he is selfish regarding her, but he doesn’t want her to think too badly of him. But he doesn’t want to lie to her either. Decisions, decisions.

“It’s just that,” Si Jin starts again, less hesitantly this time, “You getting prettier each day is not something that only I notice. Your fanboys do too. And they have been smothering you with extra attention these days. And I don’t like that.”

Mo Yeon’s heart almost bursts from the cuteness that is his pout. Seriously, this man will be the death of her. She feels almost sorry for letting him feel anxious over such a ridiculous thing but his sulking always makes her heart clench in the strangest ways that she’s almost compelled not to let him go home forever. Omo, I sound like a ert! Stop it Kang Mo Yeon! You’re not a byuntae!

She decides to placate her sulking boyfriend by leaning her head on his shoulder, the dim lighting in the parking lot of the hospital makes it hard for her to see his expression but she is sure the corner of his mouth twitches a little bit. She smirks inwardly. She can almost taste victory in .

“You know,” she begins slowly, reaching out to grab Si Jin’s left hand. She twiddles with his thumb before crossing their fingers together. “Ji Soo told me that a woman becomes her prettiest when she falls in love. And she’s going to get even prettier as she falls more deeply in love with the man.”

Si Jin remains silent throughout the beginning of her mini-speech, and Mo Yeon takes this as a cue for her to continue. “You said that I’ve been getting prettier these days. Doesn’t that simply mean I’m falling more deeply in love with you?” She tilts her head at a certain angle that she knows makes her look a bit more vulnerable, and dare she say it, more adorable. She even juts out her lower lip for an added effect, the corners of pulling down slightly and she is a hundred-percent sure her expression right now resembles that of an abandoned little puppy. “If you want me to stop getting prettier, that means you are telling to stop falling in love with you. Are you really okay with that, Yoo Si Jin-ssi?”

The aforementioned man can no longer resist his girlfriend’s dejected expression, immediately pulling her into a tight embrace. And what did she just say? How very sly of her to pull this move on him. He knows without a doubt that she knows what that face of hers does to him, and Si Jin mentions this exactly, “Ahh, I lost. I lost! And you told me that I’m the sly one here.”

Mo Yeon returns his hug by circling her arms around his back, chuckling lightly when she feels him grumbling against the crown of her head. “I can’t help it. You’re being silly. Didn’t I tell you that I love you the most out of all the men in this world? Even if Song Joong Ki appears on my doorstep and asks me out on a date, I will reject him flatly because I already have a much more awesome man as my namchin.”

Si Jin is by no means a simple man, but he is again proven to be wrong as Mo Yeon’s one answer manages to send him back into grinning so widely it stretches from ear to ear. He can already imagine Myeong Joo and Dae Young shaking their heads at them, with the former snickering, pabo at him. Aish. He sometimes wonders who wears the pants in this relationship. Certainly not him, alright.

Pulling back slightly, Si Jin closes his eyes and leans closer to Mo Yeon, his face telling her that he is begging for a kiss. Mo Yeon smiles in amusement, about to comply to the request of her choding boyfriend, before suddenly the ringtone of her phone breaks through the silence in the car, resulting in Si Jin groaning and Mo Yeon laughing at the perfect timing of whoever is calling her right now.

However, her laughter quickly dissipates from her face when she sees the caller ID on the screen.

Min Yoon Gi-oppa.

Shoot—

“Nugu?” Si Jin asks from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. Before he can read the name on the screen, Mo Yeon ends the call and proceeds to quickly hide her phone inside her purse, all of these done at a speed that she is not aware she even possesses before. Silently cursing at her sunbae for picking such a horrible timing to call her (what does he want with her anyways?), she sneaks a glance at her boyfriend.

Mo Yeon sees the beginning of a frown on Si Jin’s face and immediately poses a nonchalant look to throw his suspicion off, waving her hand on the air to emphasize her point. “Nobody. Just some friend back in college. I don’t think it’s that important.”

But Si Jin can tell from the way she avoids his gaze that there is something wrong. His training in the Special Forces also allows him to notice that her breathing is a tad bid faster than usual after looking at whatever it is on her phone. In conclusion, Si Jin knows that Dr. Kang is lying to him.

“Really,” Si Jin drawls out slowly, eyes never leaving her features and he feels a small sense of satisfaction when she starts to look nervous. “If it’s not that important, then you can definitely take the call, right? It’s not like we were doing anything important as well before…”

He definitely knows, Mo Yeon stutters nervously in her mind. She risks another glance at him and the sharpness of his gaze only confirms her fear. He definitely knows that something is wrong!

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Hmm,” Si Jin clicks his tongue, “How about starting with who was on the phone just now.”

Mo Yeon huffs exasperatedly. “But I really don’t think he has anything important to tell me. I bet the call itself is just an accident.”

“Oh,” Si Jin raises of one his brows. “A ‘he’? Ah…so this person is a man?”

Mo Yeon curses silently at her small slip-out. “I never said that.”

Si Jin snorts. “You so just did.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“And we’re back with the same old reason.” Si Jin grabs one of Mo Yeon’s wrists and traces patterns at the skin above her pulse, smiling inwardly as he feels it quickens underneath his touch. “Just when will you be completely honest with me, hm?”

Mo Yeon finds it really hard not to blush while maintaining her composure at the same time. She assumes after a year and a half of being together with this man in front of her, she would develop at least some sort of immunity against his devilish charm. But judging by the rapid pounding of her heart against her ribcage, the answer is a big no-no. “I-I wasn’t lying when I told you that he probably pressed my number by accident, though.”

Si Jin sighs. “So it is a man.”

Mo Yeon bites her lips. “You wouldn’t want to know who.”

Si Jin tugs at her hand again, this time shooting her a completely innocent look that she is sure there is a halo hanging above his head. “Try me. I promise I won’t be angry.” He puts one of his hands on his chest, feigning hurt. “Wah, jinjja. Even I’m not that petty.”

The do