Author's POV

Monday morning. Another sunny Monday morning. This is just another ordinary and normal Monday morning for Soojung or so she thought. It has already become a habit of hers to wake up from the sound of her alarm clock even after just the first ring. She has been like that ever since she realized that she is "alone" in this world and that no one would be there to care enough for her and wake her up because she's going to be late for class. She woke up to that sad reality even before she reached middle school when she found out that she was adopted and no wonder why her parents did not care for her as much as how they cared for her younger sister, Sulli. She learned to be independent from that moment and lived her life doing things for herself because she believed that if she won't, no one else would. She started to be so weary of her surroundings even when she is sleeping that is why she can hear her alarm even after just the first ring because she knew that no one would watch out for her and she had no one but herself. Yes, a sad reality.

Going back to her room in her "small" penthouse (small in the sense that it is nothing compared to their main house or to her parent's penthouse or even her sister's not that she even cared but it is still decently spacious), it has been her routine to look at her planner first thing when she wakes up to check for her schedule throughout the day. She can always afford to get a secretary not to mention that they are filthy rich but she was already used to doing things by herself because she did not want to blame other people in case something went wrong or so she believed but the main reason for not wanting to hire people to do things for her is that she doesn't want to depend on others anymore; she has learned so much from her (bad) experiences. She is so not gonna let others let her down anymore. She already had so much of that in the past.

 She would check her planner whether she had any appointments, meetings, patients that need to attend to, scheduled surgeries throughout the day etc. but the thing she really watches out for are meetings with her parents. And today turned out to be not just an ordinary Monday for her and her "family." It is that "glorious" day of finally meeting her future "in laws" and her future "husband." The meeting is scheduled at lunch and in case you missed it, she prefers to call it "meeting" instead of a family event because of reasons you already know by now.

Soojung's POV

'So the meeting is at lunch and I can still see some patients and do one minor surgery later to earn some good vibes in my system before hell will let loose later.'

 My patients, the hospital, and being a doctor is my comfort zone because it is all I've wanted to do ever since I was young. I have this silly thought that maybe my real parents were doctors or altruists because I have always had this soft spot for sick and hurting people. Maybe because I have been lacking and yearning for so much love all these years that I'd like people to get all these from the way  I provide healing for them. I am not really that good with interacting with people but when I see patients, I become a completely different person. I mean, I don't really know but that's how people in the hospital told me. I know I can get really soft sometimes but I can't really give people something I do not have and never really experienced which are unconditional love and care. I haven't really felt those things myself but I have seen it in front of my very eyes in the hospital almost every day and maybe that is why I loved the hospital so much because this is where home feels like and where I learned so much about life. And most of all it keeps me warm and contented when I can give a part of myself to others by being their healthcare provider and maybe that's how I've managed to hold on all these years.

Anyway, I am a thoracic surgeon who specializes in heart operations however, most of the time, I choose to be a general practitioner because that is how I can be able to make direct contacts to more patients of different kinds. Today I already made my rounds, visited my patients, and finished one minor surgery and I am still too early for the meeting so here I am in my office contemplating whether I am going to write a new entry in my journal to kill some time. I'd rather spend my time writing and save myself from the trouble of dolling up myself to impress my future in laws and husband. This is my way of rebelling to my parents not that I am not presentable as my usual self but because I don’t want to look too excited and pleased about this whole arranged marriage thing. As I was about to close my journal and get up to change to my usual clothes (from hospital clothes), my phone rang and its sound felt so urgent.

"Doc Soojung, are you heading out already? I think we need help here. None of the surgeons are available and we got an advance call since a patient is arriving any minute from now and may need immediate surgery. Come to the emergency room quick!"

"What? I was going to head out already but hold on. I am coming. In the meantime, tell me more about the patient's condition so I could tell you what to do as soon as the patient gets there."

I glanced down at my watch and noticed that there is only an hour and a half before the meeting but I can't turn down a patient when duty calls.

Author's POV

Mondays are usually Kai's day off from the office. He spends it either by just sleeping in and earn the lost sleep he had for the rest of the past week or baby sit his nephew since he liked kids or spend time with his friends in a bar  or dance his heart out in his own dance practice room. Today, he'd like to just sleep in because his mind took an early break the night before and spent it by clubbing and drinking with his friends. He had been so stressed recently because of the merging of the two companies including the hot topic of him getting married to the first born of that company they are merging with. He was not completely against the idea of having an arranged marriage nor completely favouring it. Besides, he has lost the capacity to love women (except his immediate family of course) due to a very bad heartbreak. But on the other hand, he isn't going to easily let someone he barely knew mess up with his life either. He had completely lost trust in women and he vowed not to fall in love ever again. But this arranged marriage will save him the effort of finding someone to marry because sooner or later he knew that his family is going to bug him to get a wife of his own.

 He had so many experiences with women in the past and has broken so many hearts too but when he met that one girl who he really wants to spend the rest of his life with, she left him to chase her own dreams without him. And that hurt a lot because he is someone who basically had everything and that gave him a huge amount of pride and ego and that's where it hurt so much. He was ready to be with her while she is chasing her dreams and give up every single thing he had only to wake up one dreadful morning and find out she was no longer there. He had therefore concluded that women are needy, clingy, always needs someone to do things for them, protect them, love them, make them happy, and when they finally get all of those, they leave you hanging because they are just plain selfish and ambitious. He felt that he was used, toyed, and betrayed. From then on, he lost it. Women has become objects of pleasure for him and here he is on a bed in a hotel room with a woman who is a complete stranger yet sleeping by his side.

He is woken up by the loud ringing of his phone and noticed that his sister is calling him. Even though all these things have happened to him, he is really glad that his family and friends have always been there for him through thick and thin no matter how much he has been screwing his life. His family is not a typical rich family though. They are genuinely happy and they love and care for each other so dearly. This is what keeps him going with his life.

Kai's POV

"Yah, Kai!."

I heard my older sister with a partially mad voice at the other line talking to me. I am also partially startled but not much. I am already used to her sudden outbursts especially in the morning.

"Hmmmm. What now?"

I sleepily replied. I am still too sleepy and groggy and I think I am having a hangover from last night's events as I recall what happened to the rest of my night yesterday and noticing that I am not in my room and some girl is beside me. And then I realized that I got too carried away from stress and has let myself so loose last night and ended up in this hotel room.

"YAH! Where are you? GET UP!! Today is the day we are all going to meet your future wife and future in laws. The gathering is at lunch in our house and BE THERE ON TIME. OKAY? So get your out of that bed with that stranger and GET READY!"

I immediately snapped out of my thoughts of going back to dreamland when my elder sister reminded me of the meeting today and I immediately made a beeline to the bathroom. Don't get me wrong there because I am not excited to meet that girl and her parents. I just don’t want to disappoint my parents that's all.

"All right, I am coming. I will just wash up and go back to my flat and get dressed. Happy?"

"and oh I almost forgot. Can you please pick up your nephew from the play school because it's on your way..for me please? I still have to attend to a short meeting now. Thank you baby boy! Love you! Mwah!"

Before I could protest, not that I' was going to, she already hung up on me. I loved my nephew so much and I like kids because they are so fun and cute so it's never a trouble to do things for him and he's basically like my own son because his dad died in a plane crash a few years back so yeah. I gotta be there before he goes out. I must hurry.

I still have about 2 hours before the meeting and I arrived just in time before my nephew, Yoogeun (5 years old) will get released. Just when I was about to get out of my car, I saw my nephew excitedly running out to the street as soon as he saw me and a car coming to his direction and my heartbeat went crazy and the first time I thought about was, he is going to get hit by that speeding car. The car was running so fast and was honking so hard signalling that he has lost control of the car and for people to clear the road.

"Yoogeun! Look out!"

I shouted as I pointed out to the car. Yoogeun turned his head and to his horror, he froze in place. I sprinted my way to my nephew but I did not get there on time. The car has already hit him before the driver managed to successfully turn the car to the opposite direction. Before Yoogeun fell to the ground, I already caught him preventing further injuries to the child. We fell on the ground hard  and pain swept through my temple, my elbow, and my shoulder as I protected Yoogeun from the fall. After my brain has processed everything that happened, I immediately sat up but also in pain and checked Yoogeun. He is already unconscious and his pulse is getting weak. I immediately stood up, ignoring the pain in my body and the people pooling around us and carried Yoogeun to the car. With the help of several bystanders, we managed to put Yoogeun in the car with me beside him and another bystander driving my car to the nearest hospital.

 I made an advance call to the hospital since that hospital turned out to be our family hospital and the hospital owned by my soon to be in laws. I told the nurse in the emergency room that my 5 year old nephew is unconscious due to a very strong blunt trauma to the left side of his chest, and he is short of breath and has a very weak pulse. I have been trained in high school for basic life support but I only know the basics and from my point of view, I think he is going to need surgery right away.

I am furious and nervous for my nephew's life. My heart is pounding really hard as we arrived at the hospital.  After a short interview for history of what happened, the nurse did not let me through the door and I stayed outside of the emergency room and paced back and forth in front of the waiting chairs. I left my sister a voice message in a very unsteady voice and told her what happened, asked her to come here as soon as she hears this message. I knew I was going to be late for the meeting but I also knew even at very serious situations such as this, this kind of meetings cannot be cancelled because we are dealing with very huge names in the industry who are very busy people and the company is at stake. I just wished that the surgery will go well and my sister will arrive soon because even though I hate to leave my nephew here, me and my sister knows that I really, really need to be there in that stupid meeting more than her.

Soojung's POV

As soon as I arrived in the emergency room, I immediately examined the patient and found out that he has flail chest and I think some broken ribs. His left side was swollen, tender, and showing bruises already. I am suspecting of haemothorax and pneumothorax because the kid is very short of breath already. His oxygen saturation is also getting really low and then I hear murmurs from his heart. His heart is already stressing to pump more blood for more oxygen. I had no choice. I need to immediately     get him to the operating room. I need to find the injured vessel responsible for the blood accumulating inside his chest and repair it, check his heart for any damage, and take out excess pleural fluid. Good thing he was brought here on time with proper precautions and an advance call for immediate actions to be given.

"Move him immediately to the operating room, I already called for my team and they are probably there already. Inform the guardian and secure a consent form immediately. And one more thing, tell the guardian to secure some spare bags of blood in case we might be needing it. "

"Doc, the consent and bills have already been taken care of. This child belongs to one of the VIPs in the hospital patients' list so everything is already well provided for."

"Okay that's good. Prepare for surgery."

I have done this kind of surgery countless of times even at this very young age (of 25), and I am quite an experienced surgeon already. I am very confident that I can finish this in less than an hour as I glanced at my watch. I still have an hour before the meeting. If faced by these kinds of situations when I am to choose between a patient and a meeting with very important (and scary) people such as my parents, I'd still go for the patients of course but I'd like to save myself from explaining myself in front of my parents so I am going to finish this surgery early and not be very late without compromising the condition of my patient.

As soon as I have finished the surgery and made sure that the condition of the patient is already stable, I immediately went out of the operating room to tell the guardian that the surgery went well and there is nothing to worry about. As I got out, I saw a man in a very formal clothes with his coat in his hand and loosened tie on his neck seated on one of the waiting chairs with his face buried in his hands. I was already in front of him but he is still not aware of my presence so I nudged his shoulder and---

"Aw!! That hurt!" The guy in front of me looked up and I immediately withdrew my hand as he clutched his shoulder in pain. I am now faced by a  young man with several scratches on one side of his cheek and a cut in his temple and as I looked down at him more, I found some blood stains near his elbow which is at the same side as all his other wounds. By the looks of how he is clutching his shoulder and his face looked like he is in so much pain, I am suspecting that he has broken either his arm or his shoulder. Just as I was about to tell him what I needed to say, a woman dressed in a corporate attire came running to us and asked about Yoogeun's condition which I remembered is the name of the patient I just operated on.

"Oh are you the parents of the child? I am the operating surgeon and the surgery went well and you have nothing to worry about as of this moment. Let's just give him a few days to recover and he is getting moved to a VIP room as of this moment." I was going to bow down and take my leave right at that moment but I was thinking that the guy really had to get treatment right away.

"Thank God! And you, Kai, are you okay? You also have some scratches. You need to get treated as well." I heard the lady asked the guy as the guy winced in pain once again as the lady touched his shoulder.

"No I am okay. I really need to go now. I can still make it to the meeting if I go now." The guy said. 'What?? He is still thinking about his meeting and his child almost died in his supervision? Is he nuts?' I thought.

"No you should get treated first. Thank you for taking care of your nephew. I don't know what I am gonna do without you." After hugging the guy, the lady turned to me, finally noticing that I still haven't left.

"Oh doc, you are still here. Thank you for taking care of my nephew. But can you please take care of my brother's injuries too? He is in a hurry but can you take care of him and please make it fast." The lady asked me, smiled at me, and showed me an apologetic look. So that explains it. I was thinking how they looked so much alike and how this guy could be a father of a 5 year old because he looked as young as me. I had no choice. Duty is calling again and I can just do this in a few minutes and we both are running late for whatever commitments we made for lunch. He finally agreed and I asked him to follow me. I planned to take him to my clinic/office on that floor instead of taking him to the emergency room and treat him for free because it’s the only way to save time going to the emergency room, settling papers, etc. He looked confused when I did not lead him to the emergency room and I decided to tell him about what I was thinking.

"I am going to treat you here in my clinic since its nearest and you don't have to settle some papers down there so you can go directly where you want to go from here. I am also late for an appointment so it's like hitting two birds in one stone." I told him as I gesture him to sit while I gather the things that I will be needing. I started to treat his wounds, his broken shoulder and put his shoulder on a cast, and stitched the cut on his temple. He kept quiet most of the time except for some whimpers and wincing here and there. I wonder how did he managed to keep himself composed since this type of fracture is really painful. I gave him some pain relievers even though he did not tell me that it is hurting so bad because I know it really does hurt.

"Thanks." He managed to mumble a soft thanks and was about to reach out from his pocket.

"You don't have to pay me anymore. It's okay. I need to go anyway. Besides, I'm going to get paid from the surgery earlier. You also need to come back here after a week to get your stitches out."  He was a little startled by my sudden burst of words after such a long time of complete silence as he looked up to me. He was about to argue some more but I told him that I really needed to go.

"Thanks again. I owe you one." He said as he smiled and left the room and I started to go to the locker and get ready to leave thinking that he was kind of handsome. It’s a waste his wounds are going to take some time to heal.

Kai's POV

As I was walking out of the clinic/office, I was really embarrassed of the fact that I wasn't able to pay her but I did not want to argue any further because I really need to go. I will just pay her when I get these stitches out or if I see her tomorrow after visiting Yoogeun. I immediately opened my phone and texted my mom that I was going to be late for a couple of minutes and I am going to explain later. I still had 10 minutes though and our house is not far from here. I just had to inform her ahead of time so that she could cover for me just in case.

Author's POV

Little did they know, they are still going to see each other a few minutes from now and they are meeting in a completely different scenario at completely different positions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a/n: Hi guys! First chapter is out! This is my first time writing though I am not new to fanfics so please bear with me ;) Please do say something about the chapter. I am open for comments, suggestions, and criticisms. Hope you enjoyed the first one! Have a nice day!!