Boyfriend.....

Her boyfriend...

My chest feels like it's being twisted and squeezed as I watched them.

"So why are you really here?" Chorong asks him again. We were back inside the conference hall, sitting at our table. This guy had pulled up a chair and sat next to her while I was on the other side- having exchanged seats with Bomi so she and Naeun would have lesser chances of fighting while someone was speaking in front. It was a bad move for me to be honest. Because now, Chorong and her boyfriend were easily in my view.

"He didn't tell you? We're presenting it today." he replies.

"Really?" Chorong smiles widely. "I'm so glad."

"You know I'd want you on stage too right?"

Chorong smiles at him again, saying something I couldn't hear.

Why is she laughing so much? She never laughs this much.... And so brightly too..

I try my best to divert my attention back to the speaker. "And now, for our first nominee..."

"That's not funny at all." Chorong's voice pulls me in again as she laughs quietly at something the guy beside her says.

"Riiiiight." Changsub teases her.

Ugh. Ignore it, Eunji, ignore them. You can talk to Chorong later. You're roommates anyway.

Focus on the presentation. Focus...

An agonizing hour and thirty minutes pass first before it's finally our time to present. We walk towards the stage as the emcee calls our name.

"...from South Korea, We have Dr. Jung and Dr. Yoon with their presentation." the emcee announces, letting us have the stage.

"Good afternoon..." Bomi greets everyone, and I smile as the gang claps and cheers quietly along with everyone.

Bomi gives our introductory speech as I stand by and give a good look at the crowd, my eyes landing on Chorong and Changsub again afterwards. She tries to listen to Bomi talk but the just keeps trying to catch her attention.

This is annoying. But I still can't keep my eyes off of them.

Bomi continues talking. She tells the story of how we were inspired to do this project, the steps we took the whole year, and how we conducted the trial. She finishes it smoothly, or so I think. I was so busy silently immersing in my pain as I was staring at the source of it, that I didn't even realize that she had finished.

"Dr. Jung." Bomi says. She has probably already tried to call my attention a couple of times, but this is the first time I hear it.

I finally react and snap back to attention. "Ah, yes."

Bomi laughs and addresses the crowd again. "Yes, finally. Forgive my partner, she was probably thinking about kimchi." she jokes.

"DAS RACIST!" Namjoo immediately shouts, making everyone in the conference laugh too.

'Good save!' Bomi silently mouths at Namjoo and makes an okay sign with her goofy face while the latter holds up her thumb with a smug smile on hers. They do this so openly in front of everyone that another round of laughter occurs. She hands me the microphone and I take her place in the middle.

I explain how we interpreted the data we gathered, showing slides and a few graphs; all the while, taking glances at Chorong. I couldn't help but smile when I realize she finally gave her full attention to our presentation- gently swatting away the hand of Changsub without even looking, when he tried to tap her shoulder to get her attention.

The effect she had on me, really.

"Monitored and guided by our beloved mentor, Dr. Seo, and inspired by Dr. Yang who's here today," I greet Dr. Yang as I mention her. "Dr. Yoon and I have been able to utilize stem cells to develop a way to 3D print products flexible enough that they could be used as valves, and ligaments. The trials, which have been mentioned by my partner have given us a 98.5% success rate." I finally wrap up our presentation on a good note.

The crowd claps, and I see a few people say something to their seatmates and acquaintances while nodding. A good sign.

Bomi joins me in the middle and we bow, thanking everyone for giving us the opportunity to present our work in front of them. We remove ourselves from the stage to go back to our table.

 As we walk, we hear the emcee announce the next research "And last but not the least, also from a representative from South Korea: Dr. Lee from Jeondae."

I look at Changsub and notices that he doesn't stand up even when he was called. I sit on my original place beside Chorong and notice that I wasn't the only one confused, even the girls were too; their heads all at Changsub's direction, waiting for him to stand up.

"Someone tell the idiot that he was called." Hayoung whispers to Namjoo and Naeun who both say no.

"Hi." we hear someone say on the microphone, and our eyes automatically go back to the stage, looking for the source. "Good afternoon, My name is Dr. Lee Minhyuk, and I am the head of Cardiothoracics at Jeondae." he announces, greeting the audience with a bow.

"You're the head? I thought the award was only for residents?" the emcee asks him.

"Ah, yes... Well you see, my sibling doesn't want to come up on stage today due to personal reasons. So, I'm here now to represent the other Dr. Lee. Since I have been the one monitoring and guiding my sibling during this project, I guess you could say I'm the best man for the job." he explains, and the emcee nods. His eyes wander around the crowd as he speaks until finally, he stares at our direction. "But I do see them here."

I see Chorong fidget a little uncomfortably in the corner of my eye and Changsub loosens his tie in discomfort too.

"Hey bro!" Minhyuk calls out, looking at Changsub. He then looks at Chorong and smirks. "Hey sis!" he says, emphasizing the word sis like he was teasing her. Everyone, of course, looks at where he was looking.

Changsub's brother? Another Lee? What the actual is happening?

And the way he calls her sis too. What's with the emphasis??

They two don't answer him. Although they were smiling, they sat still- their bodies still showing the discomfort they were feeling the minute they saw him combing the crowd, looking for them.

"Anyway, I actually landed just this morning from Korea, so please forgive me for not being here during the first half of the conference." He apologizes to everyone, smiling. His stature and the way he handles himself definitely showed a tremendous amount of confidence. He walks around the stage, surprisingly engaging with the crowd without seeming too unprofessional for the event. "I had a last minute surgery in Korea, which you will all be hearing about after my short presentation."

He tells the story of what inspired the other Dr. Lee to do the research. "Two years ago, when South Korea was hit by the heaviest snowfall of the century, we had a patient who only had the day to be able to receive a heart transplant. It was his last chance. If he didn't get one that day, he would die. So we called every hospital looking for a compatible heart. Thankfully, we found one in Busan. A patient in a coma was to be let go that day, so, the other Dr. Lee and I were sent to Busan to fetch the heart. Immediately after our plane landed, we went to the hospital there and straight to the OR. But when we arrived, we found out that there had been a misunderstanding. The organs were already harvested.... because of that, we lost an hour, and we all know that a heart is only viable for transplant within six hours right?"

Everyone either nodded or answered in agreement, eager to hear the continuation of his story.

"So no big deal, five hours from Busan to Seoul. The airport is only a few minutes away, the next flight is in thirty minutes, flying from Busan to Seoul is an hour, we'll get there with plenty of time." he clears his throat. "And we did, we arrived the airport with no problems. But at this point, the snowfall had started- delaying our flight for an hour before the airline decided it was safe to fly. So our time would be at three hours and thirty minutes. We decided to call Jeondae, to tell them to prep the patient just in case we get delayed some more."

A few gasps were heard as he continues.

"The flight took two hours instead of one. By the time we landed, we only had and an hour and thirty minutes. But we were already in Seoul, Jeondae was only a few minutes away too... But then we had to face the traffic and the slippery road. I do know my fellow Koreans here remember that day, it was chaos. Cars were slipping and sliding everywhere. We thought we wouldn't make it on time. To be honest, I didn't even think we would make it out alive." he laughs, and everyone laughs quietly too.

"So to cut things short, we did make it on time. The transplant was a success, but it could've been the worst-case scenario, and this was what made the other Dr. Lee decide to start this project." He presses a button and their presentation is projected on the screen. "And of course, I made that inspiration possible. I gave everything I had to this project that for now, we're calling... the heart in a box."

Bomi and I look at each other, our hearts sinking as we realize what he was saying. Bomi frowns and slouches, not even bothering to listen anymore. That's how she is whenever she loses.

I can't help but frown too, there was nothing else I could do except look at the ground and silentl