CHAPTER 6 EYES NOSE LIPS

 (AFTER 8 MONTHS)

“Have you seen the lists of the medical team assigned here?” Sergeant Seo asked his friend, concerned. He had seen HER name on the list and is sure that he had seen it too, if the sudden change of his mood is any indication. The past few months have been hard for both of them, with them breaking up with their girlfriends and all. Although their situation is not similar, the pain of losing someone you love is still the same.

“Yes” Si Jin answered distantly, looking far away. He doesn’t know if he should be happy or not but one thing was certain; he still love her. Her face is forever sketched on her mind, like a painting he could only dreamed of. She was the first girl he felt this strongly and he felt hopeless when she’s gone. He was still hurt of her just giving up their relationship. Wasn’t he enough? He thought they were strong but he was clearly wrong. The first few months after their break up were spent thinking where did they go wrong? What did he fail to notice? He thought she loved him, she said she loved him, but is love not strong enough to make their relationship work? He wonders if she’s happy now. If she had the ‘professor’ position she wanted so much.

“Are you going to be okay? What with seeing HER everyday” he asked. He may be stiff and stone-like most of the time, but he knows his best friend like the back of his hand. He had witnessed his friend break down and he knows that he still has not yet moved on. His expression right now told him so.

“You can say her name-“Si Jin forced a laugh “-It’s Mo Yeon, Kang Mo Yeon. Why do you always refer her as ‘her’?” he joked easing a lump on his throat when he said her name. God he missed her. It’s been so long since he called her name.

Seo Dae Young just stares at him sadly, shaking his head at his friend’s stubbornness, obviously wanted to avoid his question. Her name had been a forbidden word, a taboo, ever since they noticed him changing moods whenever her name was brought up. “She doesn’t know we’re here-“ Si Jin shakes his head “-then what is the chance you two would meet again here? Maybe you two were meant to -”

“Don’t” Si Jin stopped his friend “Don’t go there. Didn’t we already talk about this? If we were meant to be together, it would happen on the right time and place.” He thought about it for a long time and decided that it was all about timing.

Dae Young smirked at his friend trying to lighten up the mood, “I was going to say you two were meant to have closure, but if you insist that you two were meant to be, then have it your way.”

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 “During your stay here in Urk, I will be in charge of your security-“She hasn’t heard anything else aside from that. The only thing she could think of right now is that the man she longed to see was finally there right in front of her. But it must be too late for he didn’t even spare her a glance and just walked past her.

Moving on, that was probably the hardest thing she’d tried to do. Her first few months were spent uprooting herself, daring to stand up again. She distracted herself with her work and it surprisingly paid off. She became the star of the hospital, the visual and it even got her professor application approved immediately. But it came with a price, something had changed within her, the innocent view she had of the world was tainted forever. It became her personal joke that she had to become like those she despises to have what she wanted. Through all this she never forgot him, the man she hurt because of her weakness. She knows now that he would always be in her heart.

She tried to move on but no matter what she does, drinking, burying herself on her workload and hanging out with her friends she still couldn’t forget him. How can she move on if everything she does remind her of what they almost had? Why does pain never stops even though months have already past? She was the one who wanted space but why does she felt like the victim? She knew she did the right thing but every month without him still felt like hell.

The director of the hospital even asked her out, shocking her. She didn’t want to go, repeating her excuse that she wasn’t still ready to date and convinced herself that it is not because of Si Jin but her friends urge her to go with reasoning that she might be fired if she didn’t go. That decision caused her a spot on the list of the supposed ‘voluntary’ medical mission in a place called Urk, when she rejected the director’s advances and hit him with her handbag. Her only consolation was her being appointed as the team leader.

This voluntary