"Kim Ji Won's guardian? Please take a seat." The doctor signalled to the chair in front of his desk. "I'm Dr. Song, head co-ordinator of the psychiatric department, it's a pleasure meeting you. Oh, and your father has been very generous towards this hospital. Please pass our many thanks to him." 

Je Hoon gave an impassive nod in response, quickly dismissing the doctor's comments. 

"This isn't the first time Ji Won has visited us. In fact, she's scheduled in for her regular therapy session today." The doctor smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry, she's in very safe hands. Her conditions have significantly improved ever since she was diagnosed with claustrophobia." 

"Claustrophobia?"  

"You...didn't know? For example, have you noticed her checking for exits or leaving the door open?" 

Je Hoon tried to recall the times they've spent together, when all the signs started to blare at him like an alarm bell. How could he had possibly missed them? At that time, it didn't even occur to him that something minor like keeping the car windows down would be anything significant. Now it made sense, why she'd always take the corner spot inside lifts, why her breath would always hitch to the sound of doors closing.  

"Why doesn't she avoid elevators then?" 

"As doctors, something we like to tell our patients often is that avoidance isn't the solution. In fact, avoidance can actually worsen the condition. Confronting the fear head on is our best advice, and Ji Won is brave enough to do just that. I believe she has a strong motivation? But of course, it could become dangerous if she overdoes it unsupervised, as evident today." 

"How do I help her? Time isn't really on our side at the moment." 

"Mr. Lee, a psychological illness cannot be overcome alone. I suspect Ji Won has been hiding her condition which means she's been dealing with it all by herself. But what she really needs is help and support from others. You'd be surprised what your mere presence alone can achieve at a time when she presents symptoms." The doctor winked at him. 

***   

TEXT [Lee Je Hoon]: Meet me in theatre 5. ASAP.   

Ji Won had been trying to avoid Je Hoon at work after exposing her weakness to him last night. She had always managed to keep her anxiety disorder buried as a secret, even from her parents, but Je Hoon was now the first to know. Why him of all people? She sighed, impatiently tapping the 'back' button on her phone to exit out of his messages as she headed over to theatre five to meet him.   

Je Hoon opened the door to a simultaneous interpreter booth as she walked towards him, then gestured for her to enter. When she did, he proceeded to pull the door close, leaving her alone inside. Avoidance isn't the solution, the doctor had said. So he wasn't intending to suddenly go all easy on her. If anything, he was going to become stricter with his training methods. He was going to do everything he possibly could in order for her to overcome her fear, even if that meant becoming someone cruel and ruthless. 

When Ji Won sat down on the chair inside, he tapped on the booth's window with his index finger as he took a seat in front of her, signalling for her to put on a headset so that they could communicate through the soundproof walls that separated them.  

"Can you hear me?" He asked, adjusting his headset to perfectly position the microphone in front of his mouth. 

"Yes." 

"For a period of three weeks starting from today, you will formally commence your simultaneous interpretation training." He leant his back against the chair as he folded one leg over the other, slipping his hands into the pockets of his grey dress pants. "As you are aware, this requires you to not only instantaneously translate the source language into the target language, but to also listen to and comprehend the next line of speech. To begin, I will recite passages in English which you are to simultaneously interpret into Korean. Understand?" 

Ji Won nodded. She didn't have any trouble with the actual translating aspect, but it was the small booth that posed a major problem to her. In fact, she was able to skilfully execute the task Je Hoon had set for her for the first two minutes. But by the third, her enclosed surrounding began to dominate her attention, and basic errors she would've otherwise known not to make started to creep into her performance, rapidly dropping her rate of accuracy. 

Je Hoon studied her through the glass window from outside the booth. He noticed how she had clenched her fists, how beads of sweat started to form on her forehead, her neck. It was obvious to him that the symptoms of an anxiety attack had steadily begun to take its toll on her. And he witnessed how the strong-minded woman he had known all this time dissipate right in front of him. Despite that, he continued to feed words to her, and she continued to translate.  

Ji Won refused to fall victim to her disorder, especially when Je Hoon was watching her like a hawk. She shut her eyes close in a futile attempt to shake off her fear. Her eyebrows knitted from the growing discomfort and her heart started to beat erratically. Then when she opened her eyes again, she immediately regretted closing them in the first place. She knew it was her irrational mind playing malicious tricks on her, but she couldn’t ignore how the walls of the booth had seemingly started to move closer towards her, as though they were about to sandwich her any second now.  

She could see Je Hoon’s lips moving, but the words that came through her earpiece became muffled and incomprehensible. A drowning sensation overwhelmed her. It had felt like she was plunged into a deep tank of water, and no matter how violently she had kicked, her limbs refused to listen. And if anything made the situation worse, it was the accompaniment of this feeling of despair, this feeling of loneliness… 

Despite her efforts to suppress her fear, her anxiety attack became unbearable to deal with. She charged out of the booth, pushing the door open as she desperately gasped for air. She depended on a nearby wall for support, her legs too weak to do the job themselves.  

The sound of Je Hoon's clacking footsteps approached her, and just when she thought he was coming to comfort her, he strode passed and waited by the booth's door, holding it open. She looked up at him, only to see that the sympathetic expression she was expecting missing from his gaze. Instead, she met with eyes that were cold and pitiless. 

"Again," was all Je Hoon said.