Soojung jumped in her seat when a familiar tall and imposing figure loomed over her, and immediately dried up the moment she looked into the dark eyes of Kim Jongin. The artist said nothing to her, only reaching forward to grab a pen and print his name on the sign-in sheet. When Jongin left the front office desk and settled into a seat, crossing his legs and resting his right ankle on top of his left knee, the receptionist unconsciously let out a deep breath and sagged against her chair.

But then, a split second later, Soojung immediately stiffened again and all of the blood drained out of her face when she realized Kim Jongin was now here at Bright Vision Eye Clinic for an appointment.

“Oh no, oh no, I’m screwed!” she inaudibly whispered to herself, clasping her hands against her head and ready to repeatedly slam it over her keyboard.

“Hey, Soojung, is everything okay?” a light voice asked before the receptionist could ostensibly knock herself out.

Soojung removed her hands and looked up to see Kim Sejeong, one of the junior nurses, standing next to her with hands hovering, as if ready to pull the receptionist back if Soojung did end up deciding to give herself a concussion.

“Do you need any help?” Sejeong worriedly asked.

Soojung’s eyes involuntarily flicked towards Kim Jongin, which didn’t go unmissed by the junior nurse.

Sejeong stepped even closer and whispered, “Is a patient giving you any trouble?” She surreptitiously gestured to the artist and added, “Boy trouble?”

The receptionist’s cheeks instantly flamed bright red and she ducked, pulling Sejeong down with her so that none of the patients in the waiting room—least of all, Kim Jongin—could see them. “It’s not what you think,” Soojung hastily clarified, even though she knew her cherry red cheeks seemed to indicate otherwise. “It’s—” She reached up, blindly patting her desk with outstretched fingers before managing to grab hold of a thin folder. Soojung pulled it down towards her, peeking at the top, before shoving it towards Sejeong whose eyes widened as she slightly stumbled back from the sudden force. “S-sorry,” the receptionist whispered with a guilty look on her pale face.

“What’s this?” Sejeong flipped open the file and quickly scanned the top page before whispering back, “He’s on my schedule for today. What about him?”

Soojung grimaced as she briefly leaned up to look at the time on her desktop before crouching back down. “Is he ready to be seen for his appointment?”

The junior nurse nodded slowly, expression twisting slightly in confusion. “I was just about to get him, but then I saw you literally lose your mind a minute ago and now we’re here.”

Soojung’s flush deepened and she let out a slight cough.

“But seriously, Soojung, is something wrong? If he’s harassing you or something—”

“No, no, no, no! Nothing like that at all!” the receptionist immediately cut in. “Everything’s fine! My life is fine!”

Sejeong raised her eyebrows, completely unconvinced.

Soojung then pasted on her best customer service smile, which looked almost manic to the junior nurse, and whispered, “You can call him in! I don’t want to keep you from doing your job!”

“Um, okay…” Sejeong straightened up and patted out the wrinkles in her uniform before pulling the receptionist up and gently patting her outfit. Tucking the file under her arm, Sejeong made direct eye contact with Soojung before softly asking, “Are you sure everything’s okay though, Soojung? You’re my friend and if you’re in trouble, I want to know so I can help you out.”

The spike of guilt within the receptionist shot up like a tall tree. But memories of Kim Jongin’s first appearance resurfaced and another spike of fear shot up alongside the guilt, climbing even higher. “I—I’m sorry…” Soojung hoarsely whispered, slumping back down in her chair. Her long black hair cascaded over her pale face, covering it in shadows. “I’ll explain over lunch on Monday.”

“Alright, I’m holding you to it,” Sejeong said, giving the receptionist’s left shoulder a quick squeeze before donning her own bright smile and facing the waiting room. “Kim Jongin?”

The artist’s ears perked up when he heard his name, but as soon as he saw who was calling him, his eyes narrowed dangerously and he pushed himself up from the chair.

A tiny squeak escaped Soojung’s thin lips and she purposely kept her head down, pretending to be wholly focused on the yellow sticky note she had been writing on earlier.

Sejeong maintained her sunny smile as she gestured towards the hallway. “It’ll be the second room to the left,” she instructed, completely ignoring Jongin’s dark stares.

Once they were in the examination room and the door slid shut, he drew himself up and bitingly asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Nurse Kim,” she smoothly answered. “I presume this isn’t your first time here at Bright Vision Eye Clinic?” the junior nurse then pointedly asked while trying to herd Jongin to the black examination chair.

“Where’s Nurse Park?”

“I apologize, but she’s off this week,” Nurse Kim explained. “Is there a specific reason why you’re asking for Nurse Park?” This time, there was a slight edge to both her voice and her gaze.

“Well, no, not really,” Jongin answered, allowing some bite to creep into his tone as well. “But because she’s always been the nurse who sees me before the doctor does, I was wondering why that wasn’t the case today. No one notified me that anything would different.”

“I assure you, Mr. Kim: all of the nurses here at Bright Vision Eye Clinic are perfectly capable of managing and caring for your needs,” Nurse Kim stated unflinchingly. “In any case, do you have any other questions you’d like to ask before the doctor arrives? Preferably pertaining to the reason why you’re here and not our staff.”

Seeing that she had no intention of disclosing why the status quo had suddenly changed, Jongin held his tongue and only unintelligibly grunted in response.

Nurse Kim nodded and smiled as she bowed out of the room.

With that, Jongin settled into the black examination chair and kept his gaze fixed on the door. At the very least, he could ask Kyungsoo what was going on. Not that the artist particularly cared about Sojin herself. But if things were changing around the clinic, Jongin didn’t want to be blindsided any more than he already was.

But that soon shattered when the wooden door slid open and a short male doctor who was not Do Kyungsoo walked into the examination room.

Jongin immediately stood up and pointed an accusing finger at the other man. “Who are you?!”

Taken aback by the fury in the artist’s tone, the man momentarily stared at Jongin before regaining his composure and politely saying, “Hello, Mr. Kim. As you’ve…so graciously pointed out, this is our first time meeting. I am Dr. Yoo. Yoo Kihyun. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Jongin ignored Dr. Yoo’s proffered hand and instead towered over the junior doctor with his extra seven centimeters. “I never made an appointment with you,” he hissed darkly. “Where is Dr. Do?”

Dr. Yoo, like Nurse Kim, tried his best to guide the artist back to the examination chair, but Jongin vehemently stood his ground and glared down at the shorter male. Letting out a deep sigh, Dr. Yoo answered, “Dr. Do is not in the clinic today, so I am temporarily seeing his patients for him until he returns.”

“Where did he go?” Jongin pressed.

“Mr. Kim, we have no obligation to disclose our doctors’ whereabouts to our patients—”

“Where—is—he?” the artist snarled, his dark eyes ready to burn holes through the junior doctor’s head.

Kihyun lightly bit his lower lip as he seriously began contemplating whether it was worth dealing with such an unruly patient or if he should just walk out and move on with his day. His gaze flickered over to Kim Jongin’s file on the side counter and he could already tell that it was heftier than most, which meant this man regularly sought treatment at the clinic with Kyungsoo. If that were the case…then the patient’s reactions and outrage made a bit more sense.

Just a bit.

Anyhow, since Kim Jongin’s case seemed to be serious enough to warrant ongoing visits, Kihyun decided to bite the bullet. He briefly closed his eyes and sent a telepathic message to Kyungsoo, silently asking for his forgiveness and understanding.

Opening his eyes again, Dr. Yoo said, “Please take a seat, Mr. Kim. We can discuss why Dr. Do isn’t here once you’re comfortable.”

“Comfortable?” Jongin scoffed. “You think sitting here with you will make me comfortable?”

“Mr. Kim, please, I have several other patients I need to see after you,” Dr. Yoo tiredly said. “Although I truly do not believe I should be disclosing information about Dr. Do’s whereabouts to patients without his consent, I am willing to bend the rules this one time because of your situation. So please do me a favor as well and cooperate with me for the rest of your appointment.”

The artist narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he gradually began lowering himself back down onto the black examination chair. “You’ll tell me everything?”

There was a sharp intake of breath before Dr. Yoo firmly clarified, “Not everything.”

Jongin began straightening up once more.

“But enough to sufficiently answer your question,” Dr. Yoo quickly added as he stepped to the side counter and picked up the artist’s file. “Just give me a moment to get settled myself, Mr. Kim.”

With shoulders stiff and eyes flashing, Jongin forced himself to sit back down and carefully watched as the junior doctor used his foot to push Kyungsoo’s ivory stool in front of the examination chair before sitting on it. Once they were both seated, Jongin crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his chin towards Dr. Yoo. “Alright, explain.”

The junior doctor grimaced, wondering if Kyungsoo had to deal with such hostile behavior every time Kim Jongin was at the clinic. Kihyun tried picturing a polite and well-mannered version of the artist instead, but the canvas in his mind remained blank. When Kim Jongin’s frown deepened significantly as more seconds passed, Kihyun quickly shook away all other thoughts from his head and pasted on a small smile before saying, “Dr. Do is currently abroad for the International Conference on Ophthalmology Practice and Surgery.”

“Where?”

“I think that’s a bit too—”

“Where?” Jongin repeated.

Dr. Yoo’s smile faltered. “Dr. Do…is in…Redwood City in California,” he slowly revealed. “The conference is held in San Francisco every year, but Dr. Do and Dr. Kim prefer to stay outside of San Francisco since the city is a bit too crowded and chaotic for their taste.”

The artist’s scowl widened upon hearing the other senior doctor mentioned in the same breath. “They’re both there? Together?”

“Well, yes…” Dr. Yoo confirmed, visibly confused by the questions and Jongin’s look of disgust. “Dr. Do and Dr. Kim usually attend these medical conferences together to jointly represent Bright Vision Eye Clinic. On occasion, if one of them has schedule conflicts, either Dr. Son or I will attend as a stand-in. And now that Dr. Park has joined the team, she may be substituting or accompanying them at future conferences.”

“How long will they be there?”

“It’s a three-day conference, but Dr. Do and Dr. Kim are both taking the entire week off for their summer vacation.” Dr. Yoo's smile reappeared again as he continued, “The two of them are notoriously bad at taking breaks, so our team convinced them to take some extra time to sightsee and enjoy the time off while they can.”

“When are they returning from Redwood City?”

Dr. Yoo paused for a moment as he ran through the calendar in his head before answering, “I believe their return flight is scheduled to arrive in Incheon on Wednesday. I don’t remember the exact details, since the rest of us have been swamped with coverage of their patients alongside our usual schedules.”

“Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable,” the artist muttered.

The smile dropped off of Dr. Yoo’s angular face as he replied, “I do sincerely apologize that Dr. Do isn’t here today, Mr. Kim. However, if you’d like, we can—”

“It doesn’t even matter at this point!” Jongin groused, making no effort to disguise his ire as he continued glaring at the junior doctor. “There’s no way you can bring him back here right now, so why even bother doing anything else?”

“Even so, Bright Vision Eye Clinic can still provide you with top-notch care—”

“No one even told me that Dr. Do wouldn’t be here because he’s on vacation,” with Kim Junmyeon, no less, “on the other side of the world!”

“Mr. Kim, with all due respect, I would like to reiterate that we are not obligated to disclose information that is not directly pertinent to our patients,” Dr. Yoo firmly pointed out. “Just as we uphold our patients’ privacy, we also uphold our own. I do not know the exact circumstances of how Dr. Do has been treating you—nor do I wish to know, as that is between the two of you—but I really cannot, and should not, be divulging any more information about him to you without his consent.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Jongin knew that the junior doctor wasn’t wrong. But it still stung for some reason, even if he couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. “Tch, fine,” the artist irately surrendered, although maintaining his glare with just as much intensity as before.

And for the rest of the appointment, Jongin continued to silently seethe, not caring at all that Dr. Yoo was doing his best to learn about the artist’s mysterious color deficiency and supply his own opinions as to what the issue could be.

After all, he had already played this song and dance with Kyungsoo.

He had no desire go through it a second time.

♈♈♈