For the first time in a month, Kang Mo Yeon couldn’t wait to leave work and go home.

“Ah! The weather is so very nice!” she exclaimed, as she and Shi Jin exited the hospital doors. She held her palms open to the sky. “Feel the sun. It’s so nice and warm.”

“How many days has it been since you’ve been outside?” Yoo Shi Jin asked.

“I’ve been outside.” When he shot her a look that said, “I don’t believe you,” she added, “Doesn’t the hospital rooftop count as outside?”

Shi Jin rolled his eyes. “Come on. It’s time to get you home. I think you need a bath.”

“I don’t know why you’re always trying to get me to take a bath,” Mo Yeon grumbled.

“Just go along with it. You know it’s what I look forward to the most when I come home after having been away for so long.”

Mo Yeon stopped in her tracks. Looked at her husband, and shook her head. “Nice try, as always,” she said, as they climbed into their car.

“Can’t fault a man for trying,” Shi Jin pointed out.

As they navigated their way through the bustling traffic of Gagnam, Mo Yeon found herself unable to tear her eyes away from her husband’s handsome face.

Feeling her gaze on his face, he took his eyes off the road just long enough to glance in her direction. “What?” When she only smiled in response, he asked again, “Did you miss me that much?”

“YES!!!”

“Aish, gamjagiya!”

Mo Yeon laughed. She still couldn’t believe he’d come back. When she’d woken up that morning, she’d been afraid to open her eyes. She was afraid that once she did, she’d find herself alone in the call room. Had it all just been a dream? Just as she dared to open one eye, she felt an arm thrown around her and her husband’s gentle snore against her back. She let out the breath she’d been holding in and let her body relax in relief. It hadn’t been a dream.

It was real.

It’d taken them some time to escape from the hospital that morning. Mo Yeon had paperwork to complete and hand off to the next doctor-in-charge before she could leave and, while Shi Jin waited for her, their friends from the medical volunteer team gave him a hero’s welcome. Everyone was excited he’d returned home safe and sound, and everyone was glad for Mo Yeon that she could finally rest and relax. When she’d offered to stay and work her shift, not a single person would hear of it.

“Remember, three days and no nights,” Dr. Song told her, with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“Get some rest,” Nurse Ha advised, shoving Dr. Song aside.

“Maybe you’ll be in a better mood once you do,” Dr. Choi said between clenched teeth and a smile.

Mo Yeon glared at him before turning back to everyone else. “I’m pregnant, not an invalid, so I’ll see you all again in two days.”

“But,” Dr. Song started to say.

“I can’t drink when I’m pregnant, Dr. Song! So I’ll be back in two days, and not three.”

“But that’s not all you can do in three days and no nights, is what I was going to say,” he said to her back, watching her walk away supported by Shi Jin’s arm.

“Byuntae,” Nurse Ha muttered under her breath as she walked past him and returned to work.

Back in the car, Mo Yeon chattered away nonstop, catching Shi Jin up on all the news he’d missed while he was away. He couldn’t think of anything else he’d rather listen to.

“Dr. Jang and Dr. Choi are having another baby,” she told him. “It’s babies everywhere!”

“They have a son already, don’t they? How old is he?”

Mo Yeon scrunched her nose and did the match. “Four, I think? I lose track. Oh, I heard from Dr. Daniel when I sent my donation for this month. He and Ye-Hwa will be visiting Korea next month; they’d like to see us while they’re here.”

“Really? Are they going to allow him to enter the country this time?”

“He said they got things sorted out for this trip, so I would assume so. How’s Seo Dae Young-song sa? I can’t believe I forgot to ask.”

“He should be home with Yoon Myung Joo by now. I wasn’t sure who beat who out the door last night, we were both eager to get off the base. Myung Joo’s doing okay? You said you saw her just yesterday in your text.”

“So you did read my texts yesterday! And you didn’t respond?”

“By the time I was able to read them, I was already halfway home to you. It seemed pointless to send you a message when I could just surprise you instead. Speaking of which, you weren’t at home like you were supposed to be. Have you been working on-call shifts all this time?” Mo Yeon squirmed in her seat. “You promised me before I left you’d take care of yourself and wouldn’t work all the time.”

“It wasn’t that bad. I know my limits, and even if I didn’t, my co-workers wouldn’t let me do anything to hurt myself. They’re just as bad as you. They all watch me like a hawk.”

“Still.”

“I don’t like being home without you,” Mo Yeon finally admitted.

It was hard to argue in the face of such an admission, but Shi Jin still had a point to make. “Your mother’s there now. You wouldn’t have been alone.”

“It’s not the same. My mother is not you.”

Shi Jin shook his head resignedly. Trying to tell his workaholic wife to not work was a hopeless business. Plus, he knew that when he was away, work served as a source of distraction for her.

Still, he was glad for the break he always got after coming home from a long mission. He’d make sure Mo Yeon received proper care now that he was home.

On their third day home together, they met up with Seo Dae Young and Yoon Myung Joo at their favorite coffee shop. When Myung Joo walked through the door, Shi Jin could see that Mo Yeon hadn’t been exaggerating in her text message. He looked over at his wife and raised an eyebrow. But she just jerked her head and gave him the universal, “Don’t say a word,” signal.

Myung Joo sat heavily in her seat and looked over at Mo Yeon. “It’s not fair,” she complained. “How is it that you manage to look all cute and perky, even in your last weeks of pregnancy, and I look like this?” She pointed to her enlarged stomach.

“Trust me, I feel anything but cute and perky,” Mo Yeon told her.

“You look like an angel,” Dae Young reassured his wife.

Shi Jin tried not to gag. He still wasn’t used to seeing his best friend and second-in-command all gushy and mushy over his wife.

As if reading Shi Jin’s thoughts, Dae Young merely crossed his arms and said, “Oh, as if you’re any better than me."

After an hour, in which the women mostly traded pregnancy-related notes, the respective couples departed and went their separate ways. Mo Yeon and Shi Jin next visited the grocery store where she asked him if he’d remembered to call his father.

Shi Jin plucked a melon from a pile and sniffed it before placing it in their cart. “You know how my father and I are. No news is good news for us.”

Mo Yeon stopped in her tracks and stared at her husband. “It’s been three days.” Shi Jin nodded his head in wordless acknowledgment and started to push the cart forward.

“Men!” She pulled her cell phone out of her bag and continued, “You’re hopeless; you know that right?” She waited for the phone to ring and when her father-in-law finally answered, spoke into the phone. “Abeonim! I thought you’d want to know that Yoo Shi Jin-ssi made it home safely.” After a pause, she spoke again, “Yes, I’m doing well. The baby’s doing well too.” It was clear she was answering a question of his. “Alright, we’ll see you for Sunday dinner then.”

Mo Yeon hung up the phone and tossed it back into her bag. “It doesn’t hurt to be considerate,” she told her husband. “Just because your father never says so doesn’t mean he doesn’t worry. Would you like it if our baby grew up and one day decided to become a Special Forces team member and left all the time without ever telling us?”

“Alright, alright, I’l