Seunghyun’s hand seemed to get a will of its own and grabbed the back of her head pulling her towards him.  He blinked twice to chase away the thin fog and pushed his lips onto hers.

“Are you ok?” Liana’s soft voice startled him making that irrational fog to disappear.

He quickly rolled his eyes around and acknowledged his military stand-at-attention posture.   He smiled shyly and babbled something she couldn’t understand.

“I beg your pardon?” she looked for his eyes trying not to smile.

“Umm… you know… I wanted to… to…” he mumbled “I … to give this back to you!” he suddenly remembered something from the speech he conceived last night.

He stretched out his hands to hand over the paper bag but he wasn’t yet used with his condition of a wounded man so he used both of his arms discharging an involuntary groan.

“Oh!! Are you OK?” Liana hurried to take the bag. “Have you been to the hospital?” she asked pepping inside the bag.

“Aniyo…” he shook his head.

“Why not?”

“They really hurt me in there, but…”

“But I don’t…” she continued softly laughing at his wide eyes.

‘Is this why he came back?’ Liana thought for herself embracing once more her motherly, tender smile.

“Would you allow me to take another look?” she asked but his reaction made her think if this wasn’t an unfortunate use of words.

“Ne?!” he almost jumped out of his shoes.

“I mean… your bandage. May I change it today too?” her candid laughter triggered his as well.

“Oh… Mhm!...“ he nodded knowing he couldn’t say otherwise anyway.

“Ok, let’s see…” Liana tried her best to keep her moves as professional as she could.

She took off his coat and, unlike yesterday, he seemed more cooperative. To avoid standing in front of him too much, she ped the sweatshirt’s zipper at once. She knew he could’ve done it himself too but she didn’t want to allow him to think that she might start feeling uncomfortable around him, so she had to act exactly like the day before. She barely touched his shoulder and he escaped a soft sigh.

“You’re still afraid of me?” she asked while untying the knot.

“’Still?’” he turned to face her but she stopped him half way. “I was never afraid of you” he said taking back his upright posture. “I only fear needles, white robes and anything else that has to do with hospitals…”        

“So as long as I don’t wear a white robe we’ll be ok?” she found herself talking out loud.

‘Did you really had to say that??’ her mind almost instantly snapped at her. She pretended she didn’t said anything and simply shut . She poured the medicinal alcohol on a cotton piece and gently wiped around the cut.

Seunghyun used the almost 30 seconds of uneasy silence trying to figure out if she just dropped a hint in there. He wanted to play with her and use the polite form of talking but he realized he had no idea if there was any difference between the casual ‘you’ and the formal ‘you’ in English.  

“Um… I meant to say it from yesterday but…” he suddenly said “I can’t speak English too well so I really don’t know how I may address you…” he smiled feeling her hands stopping in midair for more than 3 seconds.

“Yah!” she startled him but instead of a shiver she only gained from him a wide smile “I know I’m old but you don’t really have to pore my eyes out with it, you brat!” she acted like she got upset.

Because she felt him smiling, she pushed the cotton a little harder on his wound, but immediately asked for forgiveness when he twitched.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t want to…”

“But you’re really not old…” he said in his deep voice.

“Yeah right!”  she cut him off. “That’s why you had the guts to come back to me” she laughed and stepped in front of him to start applying the bandage. “If I were a blond, busty, 20 years old would you still be here?” she amused on his wide, lost eyes that simply lowered when they hit hers.  

“You little brat, I was just messing with you” she ruffled his hair even though it was a bit harder than she anticipated to reach the top of his head.

“You know, while I was working at the hospital everybody praised my light hands…” she said trying to loosen up the conversation.

Seunghyun could only smile and nod while a new long eye blink brought his lips over hers. But unfortunately her voice dragged him back on the ground once again.

“Your hand please” she said pulling the sleeve up his arm.

 After this she also took a step back to check him up and before she knew it, she smiled and agreed that he was indeed really handsome. 

"OK, you're looking good…" she suddenly said when her eyes got lost somewhere near to where he placed his hands the other day.

'What's wrong with you, woman!' she fought with herself and instantly looked for his eyes, startling him yet again.

“Wae…? Why are you looking at me like that?”

"Umm...You can come tomorrow too, if you decide you're still afraid of hospitals" she mocked him pretending she never peeked at him once more.

“Really?” he expressed a little too much of his gladness.

“Mhm!” she nodded smiling. “Anyway you’re looking better everyday day” the words slipped from between her lips. “I mean your wound” she giggled when his eyes doubled again. “But it looks like we’ll need…’’

‘WE?? Why we??? There is no ‘we’ in here!!’ she took a short break to re-check what she just said again.

“I mean your wound…” she smiled again “It needs some antibiotics ointment…”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Umm… cream… not the one you eat but something to rub on your skin, you know?...” she tried to make herself understood using rubbing hands gestures.

“Oooh!” he quickly said.

“But I don’t know how to spell it in Korean so I can’t go to the pharmacy…”

“Let’s go buy some!” he interrupted her.

“Now?...”  

“Sure!” he replied a little too overjoyed.

“Well…” Liana checked the clock on the wall, then smiled “…ok, if you’re not too ashamed to be seen with an ‘ahjuma’ on the streets…”

“Aish! Stop it already!” Seunghyun almost shouted blushing. “I told you I didn’t wanted to say that!”

“Ok, ok, brat! Stay calm!” she laughed ruffling his hair. “I’ll be right back” she said and disappeared behind the bathroom’s white door.

‘Aish… Choi Seunghyun, what are you doing just now?...’ he had a short argument with himself while rearranging his hair back. He rolled his eyes around and decided to wait for her on the big, fluffy armchair next to him, so he stood down. He forgot again about his wounded condition and he leant back to make himself more confortable. The sudden pain in his back brought curse words on his mouth and he almost jumped up nearly stepping on the round head of some leather boots. He raised his eyes just to meet Liana’s wide, pink smile.

“Let’s go!” she said putting her hand up to ruffle his hair again but he stopped her before it could reach him.

“If you do this one more time…” he said using his gaze to annihilate her for good, but he forgot what he had to say when her wide, green eyes hit him. He simply hung on her wrist and his mouth curved into a soft smile: “…I’ll call you ‘halmeoni’! …And that means ‘grandma’!” he had to explain the term.

“Ok, kiddo, just stay calm, ok?” she set herself free from his hand with a delicate move and then, out of the blue, she ruffled hard his hair again.

“Yah! Halmeoni! Halmeoni! Halmeoni!!” he followed her to the door where he suddenly stopped when she suddenly turned to face him.

“Kiddo, we have to move fast” she said doing her best not to laugh at his eyes.

“H…Huh?” he could barely say.

“I only have 45 free minutes” she turned again her back at him to step towards the elevator.

“Ooh… Ne, ne…” he mumbled and stopped next to her, in front of the elevator. “Why are we taking the elevator for only 3 floors?” he asked starting to picture countless less or more fanciful scenarios. Smiling he sank his hands beep inside his pockets.

“Just because I’m lazy” she said without even looking towards him, demolishing each and every one of his daydreaming.

She kept her eyes straight forward and stepped inside the elevator sneakily smiling.

The elevator’s doors glided out opened and they both got out at the same time. They barely stepped once and Seunghyun grabbed her left arm, rolling her 180° to face him.

-Wha… what are you doing? she tried to turn around to look for the reason of his behavior, but he quickly grabbed her face in his palms.